Thursday 21, 2005
By Suleyman Kurt
Turkey has approved a US demand to use the Incirlik Air Base as a "logistic hub" for humanitarian operations.
A decree responding to the US demand will signed by the Turkish Cabinet Council to extend the period of a "secret" decree dated 23 June 2003 for one more year for the second time. It will not be published in the Official Gazette like the former decision. Opponents of the secret decree claimed that it was illegal. If the Cabinet approves it, the US will use the Incirlik Base as the logistic hub for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, in a speech at Esenboga Airport before his departure for Lithuania yesterday (April 20) said that the process is underway: "In fact there is nothing new. What we have done is to make things more regular. It will be adopted as the extension of former decrees as there are no new dimensions to be considered. I think that the process will be completed soon." Although both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Gul have explicitly expressed that there was no link between the Armenian genocide allegations and the Incirlik Base decision, it has drawn attention that the decree has been approved before April 24. The US asked Turkey to use the Incirlik Base comprehensively in May 2004 with demands beyond those in the recently approved framework. The previous demands were to use the base for other regional countries beside Iraq and Afghanistan and for military purposes. The agreement reached today was gained after months of negotiations between the two countries.