Turkey mulling closure of Incirlik Base to US: Pro-gov paper
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Turkish authorities were ready to deny the United States the use of the Incirlik Air Base in anti-Islamic State air campaign if Trump administration continued to ally with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, according to pro-government media.
Incirlik, a vital theater for anti-IS operations, was a trump card for Turkey against its NATO ally, said on Wednesday the Islamist newspaper Yenisafak close to circles within the government of the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
US F-16s, A-10 Thunderbolts, and Stratotankers that refuel flight missions over Syria and Iraq operate from the Incirlik which Turkey opened after months-long negotiations in mid-2015.
Not allowing foreign jets to take off from its base in the southern city of Adana to support "terrorists" was Turkey's "most natural right," added the paper quoting unnamed military sources.
Turkey regards the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has been fighting its troops over Kurdish demands, a view not shared by the US.
The threat to close Incirlik and Turkish airspace to US-led Coalition warplanes followed Pentagon's Tuesday submittal of an anti-IS plan to the White House.
Although the details of the scheme remain unavailable, US Army's much-publicized, continued support for the YPG and its multi-ethnic surrogate Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have raised suspicions in Turkey that the Kurdish-American alliance against the IS would not end.
Turkey has, since the beginning of Donal Trump's presidency, unsuccessfully tried to convince the US to pick the Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions instead of Kurdish-led forces in an ongoing operation to capture the IS capital of Raqqa.
Former President Barack Obama's administration previously rebuked Turkey's Defense Minister and a spokesperson for Erdogan over suggestions of denial of access in January.
In the event of a Turkish closure of Incirlik, the US would have to rely on its aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush currently deployed in the Mediterranean Sea and bases in other Middle Eastern countries farther away from the IS-held territories.
Editing by Ava Homa