Turkey will not permit the U.S. to use its air bases for strikes against IS

Turkish government says it will not allow a US-led military coalition to use its air bases in order to launch attacks on IS terrorists’ hideouts in neighboring Iraq and Syria. A government official said Ankara can open the Incirlik Air Base in the south only for logistical and humanitarian operations, and not for any airstrikes. “Turkey will not be involved in any armed operation but will entirely concentrate on humanitarian operations,"

It would seem that one of Obama's coalition 'partners' has backed out.
They were the only member of the coalition located in the area of contention.

I guess Obama didn't have everything all sewed up when he gave his speech last night?
I wonder if any others will back out?
Sada Elbalad

I wonder if NATO will be involved in this next snafu .Turkey is a member so maybe they will use NATO planes . I think that Turkey is the elephant in the room when considering IS .They at least fit the bill when looking at it from a biblical perspective for me . a reply to: butcherguy

I guess we should pack up our toys and go home. They can deal with the Russians if they ever come knocking.
They can also deal with isis or isil or whatever it's called now.
Bye bye

Flipping flip flop it's Turkey again.
Well there is still Crete and more...


Eta: sorry not Crete..
Cyprus I meant.

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
I guess we should pack up our toys and go home. They can deal with the Russians if they ever come knocking.
They can also deal with isis or isil or whatever it's called now.
Bye bye

Yep..Turkey needs to keep that Black Sea viable.
Perhaps the Russians do make them nervous, and will not fully commit.

And to think Turkey wants to join the European Union too. A bad move on their part.

I have yet to see this story addressed by the Obama Administration.
I wonder how committed the Turkish Government was to begin with? I wonder if they even did commit to joining the coalition, or if Obama just took it for granted that they would be on board?

They closed our un-official bases in turkey some time ago.

They have a ridiculously hard path to walk between modernizing the nation and not pissing off the fundamentalist, and dealing with the insurrection.

I doubt we will see them assisting in a direct confrontation with other Islamic groups till something major changes.

yup..seen that one comming,,,still dancing in the reign.




to bad,,so sad,,

a reply to: butcherguy

They are allowing logistical and humanitarian aid flights, just not air strikes. The reason is due to IS holding 29 Turkish hostages. It makes sense and, as another wrote, they're walking a mighty thin tightrope.

The strikes will/can be based off aircraft carriers. Turkey will be utilized as a logistics base. Bottom line: coalition still intact.

originally posted by: Feltrick
a reply to: butcherguy

They are allowing logistical and humanitarian aid flights, just not air strikes. The reason is due to IS holding 29 Turkish hostages. It makes sense and, as another wrote, they're walking a mighty thin tightrope.

The strikes will/can be based off aircraft carriers. Turkey will be utilized as a logistics base. Bottom line: coalition still intact.

I read that as 'Turkey has no balls'.

Bottom line: coalition still intact.

The real 'bottom line' is that the coalition consists of Western nations. The 'moderate' Muslims should shoulder the burden here, IMO.

Not that surprising in a way. The goal of a 'Caliphate' by Isis 'is' totally in Turkey's interest's, after all.

Turkey can strike against Syria unilaterally, but refuse against Isis?

The one chip that could be played-other than Cyprus, of course- is more support for the Kurds in northern Iraq. After all, it was 'Turkish' concerns that stopped the splitting of Iraq into a more natural three ethnic regions of Sunni, Shia and Kurds due to Turkey's worries that the Kurds would then turn their attention to Kurdish territory that is now part of Turkey...

Am I the only one that thinks this is a flippin mess all over again? If Turkey says no, then how about Israel? We know they are already heavily involved in US policy, so why not provide their bases as good friends should? Does anyone really believe that Israel is neutral in all of this and that by the US using other airfields the Arabs would think Israel innocent? What stupid bloody dumb games people play.

Having read the article the following can be stated:
We should not really blame Turkey for this. Of all of the Islamic states, Turkey is an ally of the USA, yet currently has its hands full as it stands. The first issue is that it does boarder Syria, and Iraq. The number of refugees coming in is at a constant, so it is trying to maintain internal security for those people and its citizens.

Due to the closeness to all of the hot spots, can you really blame it for not wanting to aggravate its neighbors? It cannot afford to irritate or appear to be agreeing with those that are so hated, the USA and its allies. If it does, then it risks those causing problems coming into its country and starting to make a mess of things there. And if that happens, the question of boots on the ground from the USA will be answered and most assured that the USA would be drawn into a regional conflict.

a reply to: aboutface

There is no way Israel can be involved and expect broad support from Islamic nations. Much like Gulf War One....

originally posted by: aboutface
Am I the only one that thinks this is a flippin mess all over again? If Turkey says no, then how about Israel? We know they are already heavily involved in US policy, so why not provide their bases as good friends should? Does anyone really believe that Israel is neutral in all of this and that by the US using other airfields the Arabs would think Israel innocent? What stupid bloody dumb games people play.

While Israel has been supporting the FSA and the Kurds against ISIS it can not do so very publicly. It is the same reason the US can not use Israel air bases, then fly over arab territory to bomb muslims, even if they are hated. Israels support must remain as it has arming and training the Kurds which is has been doing for decades and arming the FSA.

As for the OP and Turkey. Turkey is still a part of the coaltion just taking a public stand that it is only sending humanitatian relief. ISIS has a bunch of Turkish hostages and miltary support or action against ISIS would lead to bad things for them. So while the US can not use Turkish airbases for airstrikes you notice that Turkey says nothing about not allowing use of its airspace. So aircraft and drones from bases in the baltics will be over flying Turkey. More likely than not drones will covertly being flying from Turkey as well. This is not unexpected nor suprising. When Turkey agreed to be a member of the coalition at the NATO summit it was doing so just with humanitarian aid. Turkey is doing what we agreed with them to do.

So to some it up. Nothing has changed sinc the NATO summit. Turkey is a memeber of the coalition and will keep its limited role. This is only really a story for people who did not pay attention earlier.

a reply to: EnigmaAgent

I'm not so sure. I think they could be worried that IS might attack Turkey and Turkey would be dragged into a land war, which it doesn't want. There must also be some tension with the US because of the US's support for the Kurds. Turkey maybe worried that an established Kurdistan state in Iraq could be a threat to Turkey's internal security. There are around 14 million Kurds living in Turkey so a strong Kurdistan might start making land claims on Turkey.

Turkey has a lot more risks than the USA if "things go wrong."

a reply to: MrSpad
In the end, we have a coalition whose active members consist of Western nations.

We hear all the time that 'moderate' Muslims oppose ISIS.
Now we can see just how much they really oppose ISIS.

Hopefully someone starts paying attention to that.

Might be that the west is arming the kurds which are enemies of the turks, not everything is obumers fault, one day hes a tyrant the other hes a bumbling idiot, people need to read up on facts sometimes.

originally posted by: dukeofjive696969
Might be that the west is arming the kurds which are enemies of the turks, not everything is obumers fault, one day hes a tyrant the other hes a bumbling idiot, people need to read up on facts sometimes.

Tyrants don't necessarily need to be geniuses.

With the issues of fighting ISIS in Syria while arming the FSA and arming the Kurds which are the enemies of Turkey all makes for a pretty 'iffy' coalition.... doesn't it?

Where are all the 'moderate' Muslims that oppose ISIS?