A source from Turkey’s Ministry of National Defence has weighed in on the discussion surrounding the possible closure of the Incirlik Air Base to US forces, telling Turkey’s Anadolu Agency that “Incirlik is one of the bases of the Turkish Air Force, and all its infrastructure belongs to the Turkish Republic.”
“The Turkish government allows the US government to take part in joint measures to defend the facilities of the Turkish Armed Forces in Incirlik, in the same way that Spain, Qatar, Poland and others who have forces and equipment at Incirlik are able to do so. Only a Turkish general can serve as commander in chief of this base, the same as at all military bases on Turkish territory,” the unnamed official added.
The Defence Ministry’s unattributed comments follow days of unrest across Turkey in the wake of President Biden’s announcement Saturday that henceforth, the US would recognise the Ottoman Empire’s genocide of Armenians. Between 1915 and 1917, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed, and millions more were systematically ethnically cleansed from Anatolia and other regions of the Ottoman Empire.
Ankara has long rejected the term “genocide” to describe the events, suggesting that ethnic Turks also suffered.
A day earlier, demonstrators marched outside Incirlik Air Base to demand the expulsion of US forces and Turkey’s exit from NATO. Also on Tuesday, Turkey’s government-allied Nationalist Movement Party demanded that Ankara activate its Russian-bought S-400 air defence systems.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed "disappointment" with Biden’s decision, and urged him to backtrack, warning that his actions would have a “destructive impact” on ties going forward.
