This is a US air base in Turkey. After the coup the power to the base was cut. I’m seeing on Facebook that the Turkish military is surrounding it and prepping for something. All the articles are RT and other less reputable news outlets.
What’s actually going on there? Is the US on the brink of war with Turkey? Any links to reputable media?
Turkish authorities are saying it was a “safety inspection” and a US spokesman said there was a small protest and they closed the base as a precaution.
This is from Stars and Stripes:
More info in the complete article here: http://www.stripes.com/news/more-protests-at-incirlik-as-us-turkey-tensions-ratchet-up-1.421551
The tweets quoted in Stars and Stripes are about the best info we seem to have at the moment.
My personal take on it is that the Turkish forces are on edge after the recent coup and probably overreacted. There’s some speculation going around that the Russians may have hyped up the story on social medial but that’s not proven.
The Stars and Stripes article notes that the large force that supposedly surrounded the base isn’t visible on any of the available videos from the protest event.
If Incirlik is what it used to be, it’s not just a military base. It was one of the main intelligence gathering posts near the Soviet border. U2s that overflew the East Blok were based there. Ditto SR-71s. I had a friend who was a Russian linguist in the Air Force who was based there. The place had extensive electronic eavesdropping facilities.
At a guess, that’s why this place is gathering special attention.
It’s supposedly the police surrounding the base, not the military. Incirlik is also a Turkish base, and the Turkish armed forces are under extreme suspicion right now, so the US is probably just in between some internal stuff.
“If Incirlik is what it used to be, it’s not just a military base. It was one of the main intelligence gathering posts near the Soviet border… The place had extensive electronic eavesdropping facilities.”
So Incirlik probably had early intelligence that a coup was in the making. Unusual movements of Turkish military units, many of which were part of NATO’s RDF, should have been easily detected.
Golum, I mean Erdogan, is of the opinion that the USA was complicit in the coup, either as an active member or giving tacit support. He’s also probably trying to make a point that if the USA wants that base, they should hand over the dissident cleric currently living in Pennsylvania, that he believes is the instigator behind the coup attempt.
It probably won’t work, but a little pressure, reminding the US that he has options, won’t hurt Turkey right now.
there’s a vague and persistent conspiracy theory that the coup was so badly planned and executed, that it was designed to fail, and either a put-on by Erdogan himself or he allowed it to fumble forward to consolidate his own position. Seriously, for example - nobody blocked the airports in Istanbul? Plant an armoured car on each runway and nobody’s going to land there to rally the mob. The troops took over the broadcast facilities and then walked away.
Maybe a quid pro quo to get Turkey back on board as US ally and Incirlik functioning once again is US abandonment (betrayal) of the Kurds as Turkey attacks Rojava, supposedly against ISIS but really to short-circuit the Kurds’ aspirations.
Yeah and all the US has to do is say “close Incirlik and you get no NATO protection, good luck with Russia”. The US should not budge one inch to Erdogan, Turkey needs NATO just as much as NATO needs their bases in Turkey.
But both US and Turkey know that isn’t going to happen either. The USA won’t give away territory to make a point with its late friends; it needs the location to help with ISIS and Syria ops. Turkey is about as close to a friend that Israel has in the Islamic world… and so on. Bluster aside, it’s not in anyone’s interest to escalate the tensions, but it’s not unusual to score a few points.