ANKARA
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey did not buy the Patriots which had been deployed in Turkey's southern provinces.
Answering a written parliamentary question, Davutoglu said a total of six Patriot batteries -two each from the US, Germany and the Netherlands- were deployed in Turkey. He said Turkey had been following the developments and security situation in Syria closely and the issue (deploying Patriots in Turkey) was assessed under NATO with the allies.
Davutoglu said the batteries were not bought, adding that Germany announced that the arrival, deployment and the operation costs of the batteries were 25 million euros, and Netherlands announced it as 40 million euros.
"According to NATO's basic rule, a system's arrival, deployment and operation costs would be paid by the provider ally" stated Davutoglu, adding that Turkey provided only hosting within scope of the standards that were valid for all allies.
The minister said around 200 personnel from Germany, the Netherlands and the US were projected to be hosted in Turkey for the deployment and the operation of the batteries, adding that 10 troops each from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Denmark and the US, carrying the title of "NATO quarter personnel" were also in charge in Turkey for enabling the integration of batteries with NATO information systems.
