Menekse Tokyay
Arab News, Apr. 30, 2024
“Once that card is used, we can safely assume that the relationship between the US and Turkey relationship is damaged. Despite all of the mutual grievances accumulated over time, I don’t think we are close to that point.”
Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base is once again at the center of debates over Ankara-Washington relations, following US President Joe Biden’s recognition on Saturday of the Ottoman Empire’s mass deportations and killings of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1917 as genocide.
Biden’s decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide has angered decision-makers in Ankara who assert that there are no historical or legal grounds to classify the mass killings in this way.
During times of tension between Ankara and Washington, Incirlik Air Base — commonly used by the US for operations in the Middle East, particularly attacks on Daesh — has always been a bargaining chip for Turkey against America.
The base, around 100 miles from the Syrian border, has been used under the Defense and Cooperation Agreement between Turkey and the US since March 1980. The US reportedly stores dozens of B61 nuclear weapons at the air base for delivery by Turkish or American aircraft. … [To read the full article, click here]