ANKARA: Turkiye said on Friday its “top priority” was to avoid being dragged into the Middle East war, hours after NATO shot down a third ballistic missile from Iran.
“We are acting very cautiously against plots, traps and provocations that seek to drag our country into war,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, pledging an “appropriate and measured” response after the defense ministry said another missile was intercepted.
“Keeping our country out of this fire pit is our top priority.”
The missile, which set sirens wailing at Turkiye’s Incirlik air base, a NATO facility where US troops are stationed near the southern city of Adana, “was neutralized by NATO air and missile defense assets,” the defense ministry said.
NATO shot down a first ballistic missile from Iran on March 4, with a second intercepted on Monday.
Adana residents were woken by sirens at 3:25am (0025 GMT), several posting footage of a fast-moving object in the sky, the Ekonomim business news website reported.
Defense news site SavunmaSanayiST said they could be “fragments of a third ballistic missile” or of the interceptor, which caught fire upon entering the atmosphere.
Iran’s embassy in Ankara immediately denied any involvement, saying “no projectile” had been fired toward Turkiye, but experts said it was unlikely.
‘Common sense’
Erdogan said Turkiye would “maintain common sense” as it sought to respond “to the complex events around us.”
Monday’s incident prompted Washington to close its consulate in Adana and urge all US citizens to leave southeastern Turkiye.
Incirlik is an important NATO facility used by US troops for decades. It also hosts military personnel from Spain and Poland, its website says.
Experts say it also houses 50-60 US-owned tactical nuclear weapons.
US troops are stationed at Kurecik base in Malatya where they man an early-warning radar system NATO describes as a “key element” of its missile shield that can detect Iranian missile launches.
Although Ankara has categorically denied radar data has ever been used to help Israel, its presence has rattled Tehran.
On Tuesday, Turkiye said a Patriot missile defense system was being deployed in Malatya just days after NATO said it had moved to strengthen its ballistic missile defense posture.
