US EXPLORES ALTERNATIVE AIRBASE AFTER ROW WITH TURKEY
Ian Bruce, Defence Correspondent
The Herald, UK
r.1759142.0.0.php
Oct 15 2007
The Pentagon is looking for emergency alternatives to its key Incirlik
airbase in Turkey in case a diplomatic row with Ankara cuts off 70%
of its airborne supplies to US forces in Iraq.
The possible loss of Turkish facilities follows US congressional
criticism over alleged "genocide" against Armenian civilians by
Ottoman Turkish forces during the First World War.
The dispute now threatens to turn into an international logistics and
intelligence-gathering crisis if Ankara decides to impose sanctions
over the use of its military facilities in retaliation.
advertisementThe Turkish authorities allow the US to use the giant
Incirlik base as a main supply hub for Iraq. Unmanned aerial drone
spy missions over Iraq and Iran are flown from there.
They also allow overflights of Turkish territory by US transport
aircraft, allowing them to reduce the risk of being shot down by
insurgents inside Iraq’s troubled northern provinces.
Pentagon officials confirmed yesterday that 70% of the military cargo
sent to Iraq goes via Incirlik or on routes over Turkey.
It could take months to increase operations in other logistical hubs,
including Jordan, Kuwait and at the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr in the
northern Persian Gulf, the officials added.
Turkey, a leading member of Nato because of its common border with
Russia, blocked US requests to allow part of its invasion force
for Iraq to use Turkish territory in 2003, forcing planners to make
last-minute changes to the plan to topple Saddam Hussein.
The Turkish government recalled its ambassador to Washington last
week in protest against American criticism.
More than one million Armenians died as the Ottoman empire collapsed
almost a century ago. The Turks claim that most died at the hands of
Kurdish raiders or from hunger and disease rather than from deliberate
attacks by Ottoman forces.
Banning the use of the Incirlik base and its wider airspace now
depends on whether US lawmakers approve a draft resolution condemning
the Armenian "genocide".