Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.22 / Trend A.Taghiyeva /
The Armed Forces Command will determine the stationing of Patriot air defence systems in Turkey, Zaman newspaper quotes the country's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying.
According to Erdogan, the stationing of Patriot systems is aimed at protecting the country's borders with Syria against possible aggression.
Yesterday NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated that Turkey formally appealed to NATO to grant it Patriot air defence systems to protect the border with Syria.
According to local media reports, the most likely arrival will be the two batteries Patriot (PAC-3) supplied to Turkey from Germany. About 150 military personnel from Germany will arrive in the country for their installation and maintenance. However, this issue should be considered by the Bundestag.
Earlier such systems were twice deployed on the Turkish territory - in 1991 and 2003, during the first and the second Iraq war, but were not used.