High-ranking sources in the Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed displeasure with Turkey over deploying anti-aircraft batteries along the Syrian border in the Iskenderun district.
The Turkish daily Hurriyet meanwhile, quoted a military source as saying that this move aims at repelling a US or Israeli attack against Iran or Syria.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry sources noted that if the news published in the Turkish media were true, then Ankara would be taking a side with Damascus and Tehran, instead of preventing the nuclearization of Iran.
In a phone call with Al-Manar TV on Wednesday, Mustafa Ozcan, a Turkish political analyst, said The news in Hurriyet daily is true. The air defense system was moved from Istanbul to Iskenderun to counter any surprise Israeli air raid, because in 2007 Israeli warplanes used the Turkish airspace to carry out air raids on Syrian targets. Thus Turkey took this precautionary measure so that what happened in 2007 would not happen again.
Asked whether the cooperation between Israel and Turkey gives the Zionist entity the freedom to use Turkeys air space, Ozcan replied, Of course not. Israel cannot do this without prior notice to Ankara because Syria is Turkeys neighbor and ties between the two countries are developing day after day.
