Gul reaffirms Turkey’s position on NATO missile shield project

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who departed on November 19 for Portugal to attend a NATO summit in Lisbon, said that Turkey's national interests come first while making a decision on a proposed NATO missile shield project.

"And then Turkey makes decisions in line with the solidarity of the Alliance," Gul told reporters before his departure for the NATO summit where leaders will seal the fate of the missile shield.

"We have concluded our evaluations on the matter and we shared our clear and final decisions with officials of NATO and allied powers about how this project should move forward," Gul said.

Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey wanted the command of the missile shield.

"If the missile shield system is thought to be installed in our territories, its command should definitely be in our hands, otherwise it is impossible for us to accept such a thing," Erdogan had said.

Gul said Turkey expects its conditions would be accepted. He said there are signals in that direction, World Bulletin reported.

Ankara made clear that it does not want the missile shield system to specifically target any state, particularly Iran.

Gul reaffirmed Turkey's position, saying, "we are absolutely against citing any specific name here, an issue which has already been accepted."

However, he said several countries possess ballistic missiles and several others could have them in the future. So, he said, the missile shield project is a system planned against all these.