Turkey Denies New Deal Reached To Open Airbases To US In Fight Against Isis -- The Guardian
Prime minister’s office says talks are continuing on the subject, in comments that run contrary to US defence officials’ statement
Turkish officials have denied reaching a new agreement to let the US use its Incirlik airbase in the fight against Islamic State (Isis) militants, in comments which ran contrary to a statement made by US national security adviser Susan Rice on Sunday.
The Turkish prime minister’s office said an agreement had been reached to train moderate Syrian rebels on Turkish soil, but it was not yet clear “where [and] in what way” that would happen.
On Sunday, the US said Turkey had agreed to let US and coalition forces use its military bases, including the key Incirlik airbase close to the southern city of Adana, 100 miles from the Syrian border.
But Turkish officials insisted that no decision had been taken on Incirlik.
Read more ....
More News On Turkey Denying Reports That U.S. Forces Will Be Permitted To Use Their Bases For Airstrikes Against The Islamic State
Turkey: No agreement with U.S. on base access yet -- CBS/AP
Turkey Says No Deal Yet on U.S. Use of Bases in ISIS Fight -- New York Times
Turkey denies reaching accord with U.S. on use of air base against Islamic State -- Washington Post
Turkish official denies report of deal with US to use bases for ISIS strikes -- FOX News
No deal on İncirlik yet but talks continuing, Turkey says -- Daily Hurriyet News
Turkey denies giving U.S. access to Incirlik airbase -- Al Arabiya
My Comment: When I first read these reports .... Turkey opens its bases for US and coalition forces in fight against Isis (The Guardian) .... I was skeptical .... and I was wondering why the Pentagon was pushing this story when Turkey was clearly sending signals that they had conditions for such a level support that I knew were not acceptable to the U.S..
Hmmmm ... it looks like my skepticism was justified. It also makes one wonder on what is happening in the Pentagon to be so off in their message.
2 comments:
A deliberate but rather poor attempt at getting Turkey in the crossfires of ISIS to get them more involved?
A deliberate but rather poor attempt at getting Turkey in the crossfires of ISIS to get them more involved?
I think that is a good guess.
Or maybe the Turks agreed privately, but disagreed publicly to make the U.S. look bad. Maybe they never intended to allow troops.
Or maybe they really agreed privately, meant it, then reconsidered and did the usual damage control by publicly disavowing it. To top it off they are not embarrassed by publicly disavowing it because it gives them additional cred.
The U.S. should start closing Incirlik Air Base. They can send not essential personnel first such as dependents. I do not know when the the next Turkish elections will be, but the announce could be time to them.
with draw dependents 1st. If the AKP gains in strength just go thorugh with it.
Russia is not quite as strong as the USSR. It does nt have a kad border with Trueky. It has influence with Georgia, Amenia and Azerbiahan. It does not have the whole Ukrainina coastline.
Turkey is not indispensable. With the Pakistani diplomatic game it is playing, we cannot afford them. The 30% to 50% of people, who are not AKP voters (or the voters of similar party) need to step up.
Incirlik Air Base shutdown would hurt the local economy. Let's see if Erdogan has a plan for it. Propping up that city in the waked of base closure gives him less walking around money elsewhere.
Erdogan is playing chicken with us. If we are afraid to play chicken then automatically we lose.
The dependents in Incirlik Air Base are not that safe anyway. It would not be hard to throw a couple of mortar rounds in there. It has been done before at other American bases in safer countries. Add a little GPS and it is a guaranteed headline. Of course the base commander will take the fall for Obama or whatever president.
Does Turkish secret service have the manpower to follower every jihadi from the airport to the border? If they do not , then changes is that out of 3 to 190 cells, one cell would survive to hit Incirlik Air Base.
There are enough Alevis, Kurds, seculars and others that if we played hardball with Erdogan that we could cause him serious problems. At some point push is going to come to shove.
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