[OPINION] Why ErdoÄŸan and partners are targeting Ä°ncirlik Airbase in Turkey
Abdullah Bozkurt
Through the mobilization of their proxies in jihadist and ultranationalist groups, Turkey’s Islamist rulers and their neo-nationalist allies in the judicial, security and intelligence services have been working on a secret plot to create a sudden rupture in Turkey’s longstanding ties with the transatlantic alliance, using İncirlik Airbase, which is home to US and other NATO ally forces, as a catalyst.
The three-pronged strategy, temporarily shelved after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan worried more over what appeared to be an imminent economic collapse and bankruptcy in Turkey, involves a major public relations campaign to discredit US and other allies that use the İncirlik base in Turkey’s southern Adana province. Both Islamists and neo-nationalists have been working day in and day out to portray the base as a hub of major conspiracies that aim to dismember Turkey and undermine the nation’s interests in order to stoke fear among the Turkish public, which seems to have already bought in to the idea of the government’s move against the base and possibly other NATO interests.
Complementing this, the frivolous criminal investigations that were launched into personnel deployed at the base, both Turkish and US generals, were intended to shore up the false public perception that there are very substantive reasons to suspect malicious attempts by NATO allies in Turkey’s territory. Last but not least, the idea of shutting down access to İncirlik as well as closing NATO’s state of the art radar site in the district of Kürecik in Malatya province was for the first time publicly entertained by politicians in the government including Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It is also interesting to note that the crackdown on jihadist groups including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that target the base does not seem to be as robust as one might think.
Read more at: https://www.turkishminute.com/2018/10/19/opinion-why-erdogan-and-partners-are-targeting-incirlik-airbase-in-turkey/
He writes in way too much detail than people might care to read; but he knows his stuff... and this puts discussion of Incirlik on the board.
