Zaman, Turkey
April 21 2005

Turkey Approves US Demand for Incirlik Base
By Suleyman Kurt
Published: Thursday 21, 2005
zaman.com

Turkey has approved a US demand to use the Incirlik Air Base as a
“logistic hub” for humanitarian operations.

A decree responding to the US demand will signed by the Turkish
Cabinet Council to extend the period of a “secret” decree dated 23
June 2003 for one more year for the second time. It will not be
published in the Official Gazette like the former decision. Opponents
of the secret decree claimed that it was illegal. If the Cabinet
approves it, the US will use the Incirlik Base as the logistic hub
for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, in a speech at Esenboga
Airport before his departure for Lithuania yesterday (April 20) said
that the process is underway: “In fact there is nothing new. What we
have done is to make things more regular. It will be adopted as the
extension of former decrees as there are no new dimensions to be
considered. I think that the process will be completed soon.”
Although both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Gul have
explicitly expressed that there was no link between the Armenian
genocide allegations and the Incirlik Base decision, it has drawn
attention that the decree has been approved before April 24. The US
asked Turkey to use the Incirlik Base comprehensively in May 2004
with demands beyond those in the recently approved framework. The
previous demands were to use the base for other regional countries
beside Iraq and Afghanistan and for military purposes. The agreement
reached today was gained after months of negotiations between the two
countries.