Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned Tuesday against Syria's using chemical weapons against Turkey and suggested that NATO's Patriot missiles could counter the threat, Today's Zaman newspaper reported.

In an interview with The Financial Times, Gul said it is no secret that Syria has chemical weapons and that Damascus has old Soviet delivery systems to deploy them.

"So in case there is in some eventuality some sort of madness in this respect and some action is taken, contingency planning has to be put in place and this is something NATO is doing," he said.

Gul's remarks came on a day when the leader of NATO said the alliance will defend its only Muslim member, Turkey, and has "all plans in place" to do so.

"NATO as an organization will do what it takes to protect and defend Turkey, our ally. We have all plans in place to make sure that we can protect and defend Turkey and hopefully that way also deter so that attacks on Turkey will not take place," Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday.

Turkey earlier said it is talking to its NATO allies about possible deployment of Patriot surface-to-air missiles to guard against a spillover of Syria's conflict. Rasmussen made no specific remarks on the possible deployment of Patriots.

Damascus has not signed a 1992 international convention that bans the use, production or stockpiling of chemical weapons, but officials in the past have denied it had any stockpiles.

Western countries and Israel have reportedly voiced fears that chemical weapons could fall into the hands of militant groups as the authority of Assad erodes.

In July, Syria acknowledged for the first time that it has chemical and biological weapons and said it could use them if foreign nations intervened in the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government is evacuating the villages on the border with Syria.

Residents of two more Turkish villages located on the border were evacuated, the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper reported on Wednesday.

According to the newspaper, residents of the Kendircik and Gulebale villages in Sanliurfa were evacuated this morning.

Earlier, CNN Turk TV channel reported that Turkey began evacuating residents of the borderline Murshitpinar village.

According to the TV channel, such a decision was taken after the Syrian Air Force began bombing the town of Ras al-Ain, captured from the Syrian army by opposition forces last week, near the border with Turkey.

Syrian fighter jets bombed three different areas of Ras al-Ain on Tuesday, Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported.

After the attack, many Syrian citizens fled towards the Turkish border.

At the same time, Turkish citizens were in panic after hearing the attacks which were close to the Ceylanpinar town of Turkey.

The Turkish military warned citizens to stay away from the border for their own safety.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday that Turkey had formally protested the aerial bombing close to its border to the Syrian government, adding that the attacks were endangering Turkey's security.

He also said Turkey had reported the incident to NATO allies and to the UN Security Council but added that the Syrian jet did not infringe Turkey's border. Turkey would have responded if it had, he said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Syria on Tuesday that Turkey will not hesitate to respond with "much harsher" measures if threatened, as the Syrian aerial bombing of an area near the border continued for a second day, putting Ankara's earlier pledges to defend its borders to the test.

"We are giving the necessary response on the border and will not refrain from a much harsher response if necessary," said Erdogan while speaking at a parliamentary group meeting. "Nobody should play with fire or try to test Turkey's patience."

Meanwhile, a U.N. agency said at least 2.5 million Syrians are believed to have fled their homes because of the civil war, more than double previous estimates.

The figure came from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, whose volunteers are on the frontlines of the 20-month conflict, delivering aid supplies and evacuating the wounded.

Besides, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian announced on Tuesday that Tehran will host a Syrian "national dialogue" meeting between the Syrian government and opposition groups next week.

He said the meeting will bring together representatives of various Syrian ethnicities, political groups, minorities, the opposition, and government officials.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister added that the one-day meeting will be held with the main theme "No to Violence, Yes to Democracy."

Earlier, on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi reiterated the necessity for a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria, and called for more talks between the Syrian government and opposition forces.

The unrest that erupted in Syria in March 2011 soon escalated into armed clashes between the opposition and government forces. Syrian officials say that anti-government forces in the country are supported from the outside.

According to the U.N., the total number of victims of the conflict in Syria is around 30,000.