Turkey may lower the U.S. flag at the air base in protest of Biden’s declaration, Arab News said on Thursday, describing the air base as a “bargaining chip for Turkey against America”.
The U.S. military uses the Incirlik air base, a Turkish military compound in southern Adana province, according to the Defence and Economic Cooperation Agreement signed between Ankara and Washington in March 1980.
The air base, which hosts U.S. nuclear warheads about 100 miles from Turkey’s border with Syria, has previously been at the centre of debates, particularly following a period of soaring tensions between Washington and Ankara starting in 2019.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in December 2019 said Turkey could shut down the air base in response to threats of U.S. sanctions over Ankara’s purchase of Russian-made S-400 defence systems, and a separate U.S. Senate resolution that recognised the mass killings of Armenians a century ago as genocide.
“If Turkey were to close the base, it would likely trigger the de facto end of the Turkish-U.S. alliance, and lead Washington to abandon Ankara as a regional partner,” Arab News said.
Because of its location, Incirlik is the most effective and cheapest airbase for the U.S. Air Force, Ozgur Unluhisarciklioglu, Ankara office director of the U.S.-based German Marshall Fund, told Arab News.
“Therefore, it has become an important card for Turkey in diplomatic relations with the U.S., but one that can only be played once. Once that card is used, we can safely assume that the relationship is damaged. Despite all of the mutual grievances accumulated over time, I don’t think we are close to that point,” Unluhisarciklioglu said.
According to Karol Wasilewski, an analyst at the Warsaw-based Polish Institute of International Affairs, Erdogan's reaction to Biden’s declaration over Armenian genocide recognition has to be muted.
“He cannot afford another fight with the U.S. when the Turkish economy is so fragile,” Wasilewski told Arab News.
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