Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has claimed that the Syrian regime has some 700 missiles and that Ankara exactly knows where they are, how they are stored and who control them Today`s Zaman reported.
Speaking to Turkish Sabah daily, Davutoglu said they have tackled what he called a "pshycological edge" in Syria and instead of worring about how the Syrian regime would revenge if it becomesvictorous, "we are not considering what we will do once the regime's gone."
Turkey wants to reinforce its air defences to deal with the threat of ballistic missiles from Syria, particularly a potential chemical weapons' threat.
He said the reason why Ankara requested the deployment of Patriot missiles was to be cautious against actions of "uncontrolled groups," without elaborating if he was referring to groups linked to the Syrian regime or other militant groups.
NATO agreed on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to Turkey to defend against a possible Syrian missile attack. NATO says the measure is purely defensive, but Russia, Syria and Iran have criticised the decision, saying it increases regional instability.
NATO-member Turkey repeatedly has scrambled jets along the countries' joint frontier and responded in kind when shells from the Syrian conflict came down inside its borders, fuelling fears that the civil war could spread to destabilize the region.
Davutoglu added that many things have been done to push Turkey to a point where Ankara would consider intervention in Syria. "We always acted in restraint," he said, noting that Turkey exactly knows where the nearly 700 rockets are, how they are stored and who control them. He claimed that some of the missiles the Syrian regime owns are long-range.
Davutoglu dismissed claims that there are contention between Turkey and NATO over the number of Patriot missile batteries and said the complete air defense system is made up of three stages and Patriot missile system is providing defense for only short-range threats. He said Terminal High Altitude Air Defence (THAD) air defense system will shield against middle-range threats and rockets that could go out of atmosphere (referring to troposphere) will be intercepted by AEGIS in the Mediterranean.
Germany, the Netherlands and the United States plan to provide Patriot missile batteries there is no mention of details on numbers. Deployment is expected to take several weeks, given the need for approval by national parliaments and the logistics of delivering the missiles.
Turkish foreign minister said Turkey has very high national defensive power against conventional threats but also complained about shortcomings in its defense against rocket attacks. He said the nature of threat is changing and that a threat should not have come from one country but also groups.
"It is imperative for Turkey to renew its anti-missile defense system with its national capacity and also through NATO," Davutoglu stressed.
Speaking about a political solution in Syria, Davutoglu said a change in Syria means a period with Assad. He said Ankara wants Assad to quit to pave the way for a transitional government. Russia suggests, he said, Assad should leave under a normal process while establishing a transitional government. "We are on the same page with Russia regarding the goal. But we need to talk on methods," Davutoglu said.
Davutoglu said that Ankara offered a formula to the Assad regime through Iran seven months ago but the Assad regime rejected. He said the Syrian regime says they are now ready to consider that formula, which says the transitional government should have the full authority and that the process could move forward with the current government. Davutoglu noted that the Syrian opposition, as it gains ground, says they are not fine with interim formulas after violence in this proportions.
Russia, which has a fractious relationship with the military alliance, has been at odds with NATO over how to end the war and has vetoed UN resolutions aimed at pressuring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.