Bloomberg: Turkey will significantly strengthen Ankara's security for the NATO summit
Ahead of the NATO summit to be held in Ankara in early July, Turkey will turn its capital into a fortress, Bloomberg reports. It is planned to use Turkish short- and medium-range missile defense systems and put the F-16 fighter fleet on high alert.
Firat Kozok
Selcan Hacaoglu
According to sources familiar with the situation, Turkey will turn its capital, which has been subjected to terrorist attacks in recent years, into a real fortress with missile defense systems and fighter jets. This will be done on the eve of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, which will be held in Ankara next month.
According to sources who wished to remain anonymous and are familiar with the preparations for the summit, the authorities plan to deploy Turkish short- and medium-range missile defense systems and put Turkey's F-16 fighter fleet on high alert for the time of the meeting of the alliance leaders on July 7-8. Turkey will also deploy drones and anti-drone systems and deploy more than 40,000 security personnel in the vicinity of Ankara.
The upcoming NATO summit will be the first since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran, which borders Turkey to the east. The alliance's missile defense systems deployed in the region shot down four Iranian missiles aimed at Turkey during the first month of the conflict. According to sources, given the country's proximity to the war zone and the recent terrorist attacks carried out there by Kurdish militants and the Islamic State, Ankara has increased security measures.
Also, according to sources, about 6 thousand participants are expected at the summit. In addition to representatives of NATO member countries, these will be representatives of four partners from the Indo-Pacific region, four Persian Gulf states and Ukraine. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that Turkey is also counting on the participation of US President Donald Trump.
Turkey has the second largest army in NATO after the United States, and its rapidly growing defense industry plays an important role in the bloc's mutual defense systems.
Strengthening security measures goes far beyond involving police forces. Over the past 80 days, Turkey has spent more than $230 million to modernize the military runway in Ankara, which will be used for the arrival of aircraft of the heads of state. This strip is located closer to the summit venue, the palace of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, than the city's main commercial airport, which will reduce the length of motorcades and reduce security risks.
The city itself will be transformed by the summit. According to sources, international flights to Ankara's main commercial airport Esenboga will be limited to optimize air traffic. The authorities also plan to impose a citywide ban on demonstrations from July 1 to July 15 and coordinate their actions with foreign intelligence agencies to identify individuals who have ever participated in protests abroad.
According to the authorities, a three-day administrative day off will be announced during the summit to relieve urban roads. It is also reported that at this time, gun shops in the capital will be prohibited from displaying weapons in their windows in order to prevent possible robberies, and about 100 modern surveillance cameras will be installed at key intersections in addition to more than 30,000 cameras already installed throughout the city.
* a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation
