White House chides Turkey for Incirlik threats
The crux of the falling-out over Incirlik lies in the November 2016 US withdrawal of air support for Turkey’s Syria incursion after it started targeting Kurdish forces allied with the Americans.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Suggestions from Turkish government figures to close the Incirlik Air Base would harm Turkey’s interests, indicated a White House official on Friday.
The base has been a vital operations center for the US-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State (IS).
“It would seem to undermine their case to threaten to eliminate our access to the Incirlik Air Base,” President Barack Obama’s Press Secretary Josh Earnest told a Washington news conference aired online.
Turkey’s Defense Minister Fikri Isik said his country’s public was raising questions about the coalition’s use of Incirlik given they were not providing air support to the ongoing Turkish incursion in northwestern Syria.
In response, Earnest reminded of Turkey’s earlier failures in securing its border to stop a flow of Islamist militants from around the world into Syria.
Earlier in the day, Isik told a private Turkish TV the base did not belong to the NATO, and Western forces were there at Turkey’s consent.
“In the last several months, we have seen [Turkey] take definitive action that has had a positive impact in securing that border that is limiting the ability of [IS] to smuggle people and material,” said Earnest.
The crux of the falling-out over Incirlik lies in the November 2016 US withdrawal of air support for Turkey’s Syria incursion after it started targeting Kurdish forces allied with the Americans.
Coalition aircrafts taking off from Incirlik conducting airstrikes in support of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) irritated Turkey which recognizes the YPG as a terror group.
On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin declared his country “always” had the right to close Incirlik.
The Turkish Government opened Incirlik to anti-IS operations in July 2015 after time-consuming negotiations with the US.
“The US has been strongly supportive [of Turkey]. And we have offered them additional support to supplement some of their ongoing efforts against [IS],” Earnest stated.
“Presumably, some of the assistance that we could provide would originate from the Incirlik,” he continued.
“It feels a little like cutting off one’s nose to spite your face,” Earnest concluded. “Hopefully, that is not on our cards.”
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany