← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · RowdyRoddyPiper
Thread ID: 17521 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-03-26
2005-03-26 02:51 | User Profile
Latest indicator of buildup to an attack on Iran? -RRP
Turkey To Let U.S. Use Base as Logistical Hub: Officials By UMIT ENGINSOY, WASHINGTON
[url]http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=742574&C=europe[/url]
[QUOTE]Turkey is planning to accept “very soon” a U.S. request to use the critical air base at Incirlik in southern Turkey as a logistical hub for operations east of the country, a Turkish official said late March 23.
“I expect a Turkish government decision on Incirlik very soon. I don’t know exactly when, but very soon,” said Murat Mercan, deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling party. He spoke at a panel of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
Mercan did not elaborate, but other Turkish officials in Washington said that Ankara was preparing to accept Incirlik’s use as a logistical hub for U.S. missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One U.S. State Department official confirmed that Washington was waiting for a formal Turkish decision soon.
Incirlik’s future has been under discussion between Ankara and Washington since early last year. Ankara earlier rejected informal U.S. requests to deploy two Germany-based squadrons of F-16 fighters to Incirlik and to conduct training flights for U.S. fighters in central Turkey.
Built in 1954 in Turkey’s Adana province on the eastern Mediterranean coast, Incirlik has been hosting U.S. military aircraft for nearly five decades. But after Turkey refused to allow U.S. forces to deploy on its soil for use in the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military removed its fighter jets. [/QUOTE]