US Air Force Colonel John Walker, in the green flight suit, speaks with then-U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken at Incirlik Air Base in 2015. USAF
The Drive: Turkish Lawyers Demand Raid On Incirlik Air Base And Arrest Of U.S. Military Personnel
The claims stem from the 2016 coup plot and could help push the US to curb operations at the base and withdraw its nuclear stockpiles there.
A group of independent Turkish lawyers has petitioned the country’s courts to arrest nearly a dozen U.S. military personnel over alleged links to a coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2016 and a leaked document purports to show that they were directly involved in planning the plot. These latest accusations again call into question whether it still makes sense for the U.S. government to store dozens of nuclear weapons at Incirlik Air Base in the country or even use that facility as a springboard for conventional military operations.
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WNU Editor: These lawyers want a lot of top U.S. military officers in a Turkish jail, including the arrest of U.S. Central Command chief U.S. Army General Joseph Votel and Director of Regional Affairs for the Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Rick Boutwell. If these lawyers were just a small group petitioning the courts to push their cause .... I would not be bothered. But these lawyers are actually affiliated with the ruling government, and one cannot help but feel that they are doing this with the A-OK of the Turkish government. Bottom line .... and I have said this before .... I think now is time for the U.S. and NATO to reassess their relationship and security agreements with Turkey.
3 comments:
Time also for non essential personnel to evacuate Turkey. State department warnings would also be appropriate. The situation is escalating and the end will not be pretty I suspect.
"I think now is time for the U.S. and NATO to reassess their relationship and security agreements with Turkey."
Not enough, WNU. It's obvious that Turkey is not a partner of NATO since a long time: Turkey didn't allow US to use Incirlik Air Base under G.W. Bush for the second Iraq war. Since then it become worse and worse. We have to put Turkey out of NATO. It will become an allied of Russia? So what, that's already the case and giving sensitive information to it.
The ties binding Turkey to the USA are wide and deep. What would break them is arrests of US military at Incirlik. No doubt this is a message from Erdogan to Trump. I hope American nukes are long gone from Turkey.
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