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NATO officials will assess sites along the Turkish – Syrian border for a planned deployment of Patriot Air Defense Systems. According to statements issued by the General Staff of the Turkish Military, the missile system will not be used to establish a No-Fly Zone or to conduct offensive operations, and the deployment is merely a defensive precaution against a possible air or missile threat from Syria. How patriotic, how defensive, and how democratic is the deployment and implementation of the No-No-Fly-Zone by NATO members who claim to be proponents of freedom and democracy in Syria and what are the geo-politic implications ?
The 30 US-American, Dutch and German NATO experts who will assess deployments sites along the 900 km long border will be followed by approximately 300 NATO military personnel which are needed to service the Patriot Missile Batteries. Both the USA, the Netherlands and Germany have the weapons system integrated into their military structure, and it is likely that both American, Dutch and German troops will be deployed to Turkey. The most likely deployment sites are near Diyarbakir, Malatya and Urfa in southeastern Turkey.
With regard to statements by the conservative German government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, that Germany supports reforms, freedom and not least democracy in Syria, it is by many perceived as somewhat ironic that the Merkel administration attempts to avoid a vote by the German Parliament, which according to German law is required before the deployment of German troops. How democratic is the initiative which is required to safeguard reform and democracy in Syria ? Many American, German, Dutch and Turkish patriots perceive the deployment of the Patriot missile system as being as little democratic as it has anything to do with patriotism or defense.
The last time the Patriot Missile Defense System was deployed in Turkey was between 1991 and 2003, during the two Gulf Wars against Iraq. If one perceives the illegal wars on Iraq as defensive, of course, then one may as well follow through on that line of logical reasoning and try to sell the new deployment as being of a purely defensive nature.
Officially, Turkey has applied for the deployment because, according to Turkish military sources, Syria has on several occasions fired artillery salvos across the border. It does not take years of military education to figure out that the Patriot system cannot protect against artillery or mortar rounds but it makes good headlines and it sounds good when Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan tries to sell the idea to a Turkish population.
After the public humiliation the Erdogan government suffered on 29 October, when millions of Turks went into the streets to celebrate Turkey´s revolution day and to protest against the war on Syria, and that in spite of Erdogan´s attempt to outlaw the celebrations, after the humiliation suffered because millions of protesters removed the police barricades in the streets of Ankara, Istanbul and every major city in Turkey, showing R. Tayyip Erdogan that his attempt to rewrite Turkish history had failed miserably and that the people of Turkey did not stand behind an imperialist war against Syria, after such public humiliation it is naturally understandable that the Erdogan government would need really convincing arguments such as the deployment of Patriot missiles to protect Turkish citizens from Syrian mortar shells.
If one still has sympathy with R. Tayyip Erdogan, or pity, one can only hope that nobody reminds the citizens of Turkey about the fact that the model of mortar which was used in the cross border incident was identical with the model Turkey had provided to the FSA and other vanguards of truth and democracy in Syria. Oops. Sorry Tayyip.
The Syrian government has time and time again offered the establishment of a joint Turkish – Syrian military commission to monitor all eventual cross border incidents and to defuse the situation, but deploying Patriot missiles is of course a much better and safer option to keep the Turkish public safe. It is rather safe to assume that the AKP government of Erdogan would be displeased with establishing the Syrian proposed joint military commission because it would make it even more difficult to cover up the fact that the Turkish military actively distributes weapons of all calibers among insurgents of all terrorist organizations in Syria and Turkey as long as the weapons will be used against the people of Syria. After all, who would be better to safeguard human rights in Syria than Erdogan´s Islamo-Fascist allies .
As to the supposed Non-No-Fly-Zone. Syria has a No-Fly-Zone already and it proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt when it shot down a Turkish Phantom F-4 over Syrian territory.
There is only one explanation for the deployment of Patriot missiles to Turkey that makes sense. It is the explanation that the deployment is one further step toward endowing NATO with a conventional and nuclear first strike capability against Russia, Iran and Syria. Will it make the people of Turkey be safer, has it anything to do with defense and No-No-Fly-Zones, or does it have anything to do with Freedom and Democracy in Syria, Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA ? Or will it help resolving the primary causes for the war on Syria, which is a lack of convergence in energy and security needs of the European Union and Russia which would be non-existent if it was not for US-Ambitions for a Pax Americana ?
It may be that Merkel and Erdogan find someone who will buy their defensive, democratic, patriotic No-No-Fly-Zone polemic if they boost their non-argument with a sufficient amount of propaganda but I am not buying it.
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