"Seemingly, even Turkeys de jure ownership of the Incirlik base and rules of formality are becoming too much of a burden for America," argues military analyst Assistant Prof. Haluk Gerger.
The reactions follow public statements by the Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) Gen. John Abizaid concerning the Incirlik base, in Turkeys south port city of Adana.
Abizaid made demands towards extending the use of the base beyond what is defined by the 1980 Defense and Economic Cooperation Agreement (DECA) between Turkey and the USA.
Gen. John Abizaid is reported to urge for making the airbase more operational, using it in combating international terrorism, increasing the number of aircraft, and most important of all lifting Turkish parliament approval for cross-border use.
Even flexible "rules" are too much
Commenting on these demands, Gerger told bianet that "the USA sees the issue of obtaining permission from Turkish authorities, even in it's present flexible form, as an obstacle."
"Yet, the issues around obtaining permission from the Turkish authorities shouldn't be understood as a relationship between two sovereign states. Incirlik is supposedly a Turkish base but this is only a facade. It seems that audaciously America is seeing this as cumbersome"
Dr. Gerger comments that, through time the use of US bases were tied to certain rules. For example, they could not be used outside of NATO purposes, but even those aren't real obstacles.
"In the past the bases was equipped with nuclear weapons and missiles but later these were withdrawn. Nevertheless they remained as arsenals where nuclear bombs were stockpiled. Of course the authority to use these weapons belongs to the US president."
Turkish government may respond the US demands in two different Dr. Gerger predicts: *They declare that the government agrees to US demands, the bureaucracy ratifies it and refers to it as an "application agreement."
* Or they might bring the issue to the parliament, but this would be asking for social dissent, the last thing a government would look for.(YS/AT/YE)
