Posted on 09/13/2020 5:22:27 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
ANKARA: A provocative live-fire drill by the Turkish navy off the coast of Cyprus was branded illegal on Saturday, as reports emerged that the US is drawing up plans to withdraw from the strategic Incirlik air force base.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen to Incirlik,” Ron Johnson, the US senator who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee for Europe, told the Washington Examiner. “We hope for the best, but we have to plan for the worst.”
US withdrawal would be a blow to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, suggesting that the US no longer trusts him. “I think, from a defensive posture, we have to look at the reality of the situation that the path Erdogan is on is not good,” Johnson said.
Meanwhile Turkey is conducting naval gunnery exercises from Saturday until Monday off the coast at Sadrazamkoy in northern Cyprus, a part of the island controlled by Ankara but unrecognized by the rest of the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at arabnews.com ...
It’s about time.
Why we put nukes into a muz country is baffling to me.
Armenian genocide. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone says, “Turkey”. I would love to see Greece level it.
Erdogan fancies himself as the leader of the mooselimb world.
He needs an ass whooping.
And what the heck is Turkey doing in NATO?
He fancies himself so, but God calls him Gog of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.
See Ezekiel 38!
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Ezekiel-Chapter-38/
Base has lost its importance over the years. Turkey was a NATO ally which gave the base stability. Now Turkey has shown its membership to be questionable. It is time to move out.
I hope they got the nukes out of there already.
The USSR is dead. Encirclement is no longer required
You know that’s step one.
It’s about Goldang time. I can’t stand those Turkish bullies.
I hope the nukes are long gone. We should have decamped 15 years ago.
b/c they were anti communist when the USSR was actively threatening both Europe and the Med.
We should pull out of there, and it would absolutely be a tragedy if one of our nukes fell on Ankara as we departed.
I suspect we will more to Jordan. Just a hunch.
JoMa
Major economic blow to that region of Turkey.
The Russians are not much of a threat in Turkey. The Turks have always been the buffer between the insanity of the Middle East and Europe. Not so much any more. Time to pull back and let Europe take care of Europe.
Way back in the early 70s as USAF radio operator, this base was where a lot of my specialty code was assigned. Some kind of radio listening post, I suppose
Turkey straddles Europe and Asia, and had a particularly important role for NATO because the Soviet ports in the Black Sea were only accessible through Turkey via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.
There is, probably, an air base in Israel the the US can share.
I suspect that's something else we have to thank the striped pants brigade for because, IIRC, the Joint Chiefs were opposed.
“And what the heck is Turkey doing in NATO?”
Leftover from the Cold War. They too were threatened by the Soviets. Turkey is strategic real estate.
Also, to a degree, this and other benefits post-1945 were a reward for good behavior in WWII. Turkey was a “friendly” neutral and never played footsie with the Nazis even when they were next door, in force. Consider the delicate days of April-May 1941.
Add that they sent a brigade to Korea, 1950, which fought hard and suffered heavy casualties. And then there was decades of Cold War cooperation, and etc. The whole thing only went bad with Erdogan.
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