Colonel Bernd Stockmann succeeded Colonel Marcus Ellermann as the commander of the German military unit for the Patriot systems in Turkey, and began to serve on Friday. At the Gazi military barracks, a change of command ceremony for the position was held in the southeastern province of Kahramanmaras. 46-year-old new commander Stockmann served in Afghanistan beforehand, succeeded Ellerman and began to serve. German army major general Werner Fritz made a speech in the ceremony and said Turkey was the NATO ally was mostly affected by Syrian incidents. Fritz noted that the Syrian government still had both a ballistic missile system and large scale chemical weapons munitions and added that they were on duty to protect a NATO member, Turkey. Earlier, Ellerman had said he was leaving Turkey happily because of the positive attitude of the local people he met.