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Saturday, August 20, 2016
Kremlin Presses Turkey for Access to NATO's Incirlik Air Base, Home to US Nukes

Kremlin Presses Turkey for Access to NATO's Incirlik Air Base, Home to US
Nukes
21:40 20.08.2016(updated 23:22 20.08.2016)
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160820/1044470471/putin-russia-turkey-nato-incirlik.html

Russian officials have reached out to Ankara to request access to the
American-built base as a convenient launch pad for airstrikes in the Syrian
theater, but it remains to be seen whether such cooperation will roil NATO’s
feathers.

Russia has called on Turkey to provide access to NATO’s Incirlik Air Base,
the critical launch pad for US and coalition airstrikes in Syria, in a bid
to expand the country’s influence in the Middle East and to further the goal
of combatting radical jihadist groups, primarily Daesh and al-Nusra, that
threaten peace and stability in Syria.

The base is home to at least 50 US B-61 nuclear warheads each carrying the
potential destructive capacity of 100 times the Hiroshima bomb, a reality
that led to heightened concern among American officials during, and in the
wake of, the failed coup attempt of the Erdogan regime.

Sitting only 65 miles from the Syrian border, defense analysts, including
the former White House arms control official under Bill Clinton, have
cautioned that these weapons are not safe from the Daesh terrorist
organization and other hostile elements who could conceivably breach the
perimeter if Americans are left unaided by Turkish police forces.

That fear likely grew more elevated as Turkey has drifted towards Russia in
the wake of the coup with senior officials, including the Turkish President
himself, insinuating if not outright claiming that the United States played
a hand in the failed attempt to overthrow the government and with a brewing
diplomatic row developing between Washington and Ankara over the State
Department’s refusal to clear the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, who has
been alleged to have been the mastermind of the failed coup.

The brewing situation between the United States and Russia have opened the
door for the reestablishment of relations between Moscow and Ankara
including increased defense and strategic cooperation in Syria.

"It just remains to come to an agreement with Erdogan that we get the NATO
base Incirlik as [our] primary airbase," Senator Igor Morozov, a member of
the upper house’s committee on international affairs said reports the
British newspaper The Times. He explained that the development would enable
the Russian air force to engage in "constant bombing" of Daesh and other
jihadist groups to bring the conflict to a resolution faster.

"You’ll see, the next base will be Incirlik," he told Izvestia after the
Kremlin revealed this week that its bombers had started flying out of Iran
to launch attack on Syria. "This will be one more victory for Putin."

Another Senator, Viktor Ozerov, told RIA Novosti, "It’s not certain that
Russia needs Incirlik, but such a decision would be seen as a real
willingness on Turkey’s part to cooperate with Russia in the war against
terrorism in Syria."

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