A convoy of NATO warships has left Turkey for the Mediterranean Sea purportedly to carry out anti-terrorism operations in the region, a report says.
According to a July 5 report published by the Turkish Hurriyet Daily, the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 set off from Istanbul.
The group consists of Turkey’s TCG Gediz, France’s Courbet and Germany’s Bayern warships and the three frigates have a total of 545 crew members on board, with Germany leading the mission.
German Rear Admiral Thorsten Kahler said on Wednesday that the mission of the maritime group is “to give a clear message to terrorists in the region that NATO is on duty.”
“We are not telling our whole schedule, but we will stay in the region.”
Kahler said the anti-terrorism mission is “the only Article 5 mission of NATO so far.”
Article 5 of the Washington Treaty of NATO says the member states “agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.”
The development comes days after Syria said on June 22 that its air defense forces shot down a Turkish F-4 Phantom in the Syrian airspace “according to the laws that govern such situations.” The warplane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
amina koydum, how can such a disaster happen with the technology available in 2012, most especially to the army. Syria itself claimed they have top notch communications and navigations made in russia. Turks and syrians regard themselves as brothers. Maybe the world is unaware of this. Therefore this makes no sense. Most probably that Crypto-Zionist Erdogan is involved in long term attempted planned destruction of the great turks. Not advisable.
ReplyDelete