ANSAmed – Italy
March 5, 2010 Friday 11:50 AM CET

USE OF INCIRLIK AIR BASE AT RISK

(ANSAmed) In reaction to the approval yesterday evening by the Foreign
Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives on a resolution
in which the Armenian massacres that took place during the Ottoman
empire are defined as "genocide", Ankara could prohibit the US from
using the Incirlik air base (southern Turkey) which is currently used
by the US military to supply their troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The news was reported by daily newspapers Zaman and Hurriyet.

The Turkish threat to not allow the US to use Incirlik is not new. The
same threat was made in October 2007 after the Foreign Affairs
Committee of Congress approved a similar motion to the one approved
yesterday evening. Again at that time Ankara recalled their then
ambassador, Nabi Sensoy, back to Turkey for consultations. All the
Turkish daily newspapers today headline on yesterday evening’s vote in
Washington and underline how the US President Barack Obama "did not do
enough" to block the resolution. Daily newspaper Vatan, in particular,
highlights the "hardly orthodox" methods which it says the Committee
head, Democrat Howard Berman, is said to have used to get his more
rebellious colleagues to vote. For his part, Murat Mercan, Chairman of
the Turkish Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, who is currently
in Washington, has described yesterday’s vote as "a comedy".