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The National Interest magazine said that the visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Cyprus, and the training of the Cypriot National Guard with the US Navy, is an attempt by Washington to strengthen its military presence in Souda Bay in Crete, due to its uncertainty about the future of the US presence at Incirlik air base. In southern Turkey.
The magazine confirmed that in the event of a deterioration in US-Turkish relations, Incirlik will often be targeted.
Turkey and Greece joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952, but Washington relied on Ankara, due to its manpower, control of the Bosphorus, and its geopolitical position along the southern flank of the Soviet Union. .
After the end of World War II, the United States found it necessary to have a base in Turkey, and after a decade the new Adana Air Base began to operate, which was renamed Incirlik in 1958, and the base played an important role in the Cold War polls as it was a component. Logistically in the American responses to the military crises in Israel and Lebanon.
It also became a Soviet deterrent center, and in 1959 Washington supplied it with nuclear weapons, as it now contains some 50 nuclear warheads.
Alternatives in the region
Turkey has tried to take advantage of the United States’ dependence on Incirlik for material and diplomatic support. Before the Iraq war in 2003, for example, Turkey stipulated that it had the right to veto all flights and missions launched from the base, which is a requirement. It would make the operations impractical, if not impossible, according to the magazine.
So in the last 15 years, the United States has started looking for alternatives. The American presence has expanded at the Romanian Michael Coglenissano airbase, and in 2017 and 2018, the United States spent $ 150 million to modernize an airbase in Jordan.
The magazine emphasized that efforts to reduce US dependence on the Incirlik base are commendable, and that Washington has sufficiently diversified its defense infrastructure in the region, and that any US military presence in Turkey is a burden.
He noted that Erdogan and his aides regularly incite anti-Americanism through the media that they now monopolize, and that if conflict breaks out between Turkey and Greece, or if Turkey is subjected to some domestic insults, Erdogan can order the arrest of Americans in the base, or even encourage people to storm it with 1,000. An American.
Potential hostages
The magazine added that the prospect of capturing Americans on the base is not as far-fetched as it was with the staff of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979, emphasizing that simply, with strained relations, American employees on the base could be considered future or future. potential hostages.
He pointed out to a magazine that the Pentagon is concerned about the Americans at this base and has already begun planning the evacuation of the nuclear weapons stored there due to hostility from the Turkish government and the base’s proximity to terrorist-controlled areas to along the Syrian border.
The magazine said that every day that American forces and equipment remain in Turkey puts Americans in danger, and that the United States cannot wait for the inevitable crisis to occur before beginning to withdraw it.
He explained that a gradual withdrawal would put the forces at risk because fewer numbers would increase the vulnerability of the rest and that instead the Pentagon should create a de facto evacuation overnight, the Turks wake up one morning to find that all American personnel and planes left as much as possible. Of the equipment they can transport. “
She indicated that Turkey’s supporters within the State Department and Congress will resist any such action, believing that Turkey is too big for Washington to lose, and that America’s anti-Turkey or any reduction in the cooperation will benefit Russia.
