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| The Grand Turk | |
| Developing: Thousands Of Turkish Forces Surround U.S. Base At Incirlik Airbase | |
| 2016-07-31 | |
| [WeaselZippers] Erdogan has blamed Turkish Air Force members who had worked closest with NATO and U.S. as being involved in coup. They have also previously accused U.S. of involvement in the coup, even blaming the former commander of the base, who retired in March and couldn’t have been involved. But an Erdogan Islamist paper explicitly blamed him, stoking flames against NATO and the U.S. ’Protesters’, read Erdogan Islamists, were there Thursday, with pro-Erdogan Islamists yelling "death to the US" and called for the immediate closure of the Incirlik base. Meanwhile Obama is on his birthday golf outing with the boys. Update: Reports of protesters in front of the U.S. Consulate in Adana. That is about 13 minutes away from Incirlik. Chanting "America, go away!" Uh Oh.
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| Posted by:Blossom Unains5562 |
| #43 There is no evidence at all against Gulen. The Police were his "guys" that dis-armed the Army. He was no where anywhere. Maybe a more Sufi oriented than Sunni driven whatever. |
| Posted by: newc 2016-07-31 23:58 |
| #42 I can't imagine the US letting Gulen leave the country without Turkish approval. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2016-07-31 21:36 |
| #41 He would be safer in Uganda. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2016-07-31 21:21 |
| #40 Re Gulen going to Canada: remember Skippy Trudeau is in charge there. He might hand Gulen over to the Turks. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2016-07-31 21:12 |
| #39 Stars and Stripes http://www.stripes.com/news/more-protests-at-incirlik-as-us-turkey-tensions-ratchet-up-1.421551 |
| Posted by: Large Thrusoling7890 2016-07-31 21:11 |
| #38 Wondering if there is a one-way ticket to Ankara in Fethullah Gülen's near-future? He'll be bundled on a red-eye flight to Istanbul before the US elections. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2016-07-31 20:24 |
| #37 Apparently the Turks train with the nukes, so I assume they have the codes. And I doubt a physical hack is too difficult. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2016-07-31 20:16 |
| #36 If Gulen is smart, he needs to be headed to Canada for asylum. Obama will hand him over as part of his Muslim Brotherhood duties. |
| Posted by: Floth Munster3600 2016-07-31 19:54 |
| #35 Well Barry did say he wanted to reduce the US nuclear arsenal. Any word on Top Secret Arming Procedures traveled across State Department? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2016-07-31 19:31 |
| #34 Wondering if there is a one-way ticket to Ankara in Fethullah Gülen's near-future? |
| Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 2016-07-31 18:39 |
| #33 Difficult to believe. Good news is we got nukes. Hell we got Ohio Class crazed killers. Fuck 'em. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2016-07-31 15:00 |
| #32 Don't worry G(r)om the Turk is hapless. Everything you've read about Turkish troops in Korea was PR. Without German leadership and logistical support Winston Churchill would have kicked islam ass at the Daradanelles and did so at Salonika. Stay friends with the E Egyptians and the Jordanians. Get tight with Cyprus and the Greeks, spit on the Turkamen. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2016-07-31 14:47 |
| #31 So Vlad, warm water port? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2016-07-31 14:40 |
| #30 How do you say "cluster f**k" in Turkish? If Turkey gets the bomb, we'll be saying it in Hebrew. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-07-31 12:24 |
| #29 some info from the twitter feed: In the wake of the coup attempt, several military officials at the Incirlik Air Base, including its commander, General Bekir Ercan Van, were arrested on treason charges by Turkish authorities, which claimed that one of the rogue F-16 planes taking part in the rebellion to overthrow Erdogan’s government had been refueled there. The general had even reportedly attempted to seek asylum in the US, but his plea was apparently rejected. Incirlic Air Base is used by both the Turkish and US militaries and is vital to the US-led anti-terror bombing campaign in Syria and Iraq. It also serves as one of six NATO storage sites for US tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. The exact number of nuclear bombs kept at the base is unknown, although, according to various estimates, it may store up to 90 warheads. P.S. How do you say "cluster f**k" in Turkish? |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2016-07-31 12:15 |
| #28 phil_b: Some time ago the Turks would not allow the US to use Incirlik as a drone base when asked. Then the US recently received OK to revive the Incirlik base that had been non-operational for years. I suggested then that it was one Muslim Brother (Erdogan) doing a favor for another Muslim Brother (B. Obama). The fact that we have anything to do with Erdogan after it was learned that he was supplying arms to ISIS is absurd. |
| Posted by: Flusotle Barnsmell8444 2016-07-31 10:20 |
| #27 Back in the old pre-PC days when handling like material, there was no margin of error. The instructions for my system, if about to be overrun, was to detonate in place. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2016-07-31 10:15 |
| #26 Everything west/north of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles should be split between Greece and Bulgaria. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2016-07-31 10:08 |
| #25 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-31/turkey-blocks-access-to-airbase-on-coup-suspicion-hurriyet-says |
| Posted by: jay-dubya 2016-07-31 09:56 |
| #24 Cooled off for now |
| Posted by: jay-dubya 2016-07-31 09:56 |
| #23 He's going full Kim |
| Posted by: Frank G 2016-07-31 09:52 |
| #22 #18 Daily Caller reporting. Good find, Besoeker. Thank you. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-07-31 09:24 |
| #21 Oh, this is so not good - I hope that non-essential military personnel have been drawing down since the end of March, when dependents were ordered out of Incirlik. Story from Military Times on dependents being ordered out here. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2016-07-31 09:10 |
| #20 " Barack Obama supports Erdogan. Not our troops." He's not the only candidate to do so. Oh well, at least we can pretend we've gotten Dire Revenge for the Kennedy Killing. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2016-07-31 08:35 |
| #19 hope our indolent Kenyan master has a plan. This IS the plan. |
| Posted by: Shatle Spaviter1495 2016-07-31 08:00 |
| #18 Daily Caller reporting. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-07-31 07:37 |
| #17 I hope our indolent Kenyan master has a plan. Deny there is any problem? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-07-31 06:57 |
| #16 Erdogan: Free nukes!!! ? |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2016-07-31 06:33 |
| #15 Incirlik never made much sense when there are the British sovereign bases on Cyprus, which the US already uses. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2016-07-31 05:12 |
| #14 There are both Turkish airforce and US presence at Incirlik. The Turkish government claimed that an F16 that took part in the supposedly coup attempt was based out of Incirlik. The Turkish commanding officer of the Turkish presence at Incirlik was detained days ago. Protesters recently at Incirlik claimed US forces there were also responsible. Supposedly todays so called response was to address rumors of another coup attempt orchestrated I would assume by other Turkish airforce personel at Incirlik. A US General was scheduled to arrive at Incirlik today. Hopefully to arrange a departure of US forces and the nukes would be my recommendation. |
| Posted by: Unelet Protector of the Sith2424 2016-07-31 04:22 |
| #13 'Safety Inspection' sounds ominously like'Taking nuclear weapons for safekeeping'. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2016-07-31 04:20 |
| #12 And what will be the reaction in Germany and Italy? Will our bases there be told not to interfere? Could this be what took place in Benghazi, or am I jumping to conclusions ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-07-31 03:41 |
| #11 news.au.comstory. On situation at Incirlik. I can find nothing on the story available elsewhere. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-07-31 03:35 |
| #10 The reality is that the Turks can come in and take whatever they want. The upside is if they take the nukes, they will be kicked out of NATO (I hope). |
| Posted by: phil_b 2016-07-31 03:19 |
| #9 I hope our indolent Kenyan master has a plan. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-07-31 03:07 |
| #8 The fecal matter hits the rotary air impeller. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-07-31 02:02 |
| #7 Oughtn't satellite phones still work, even if email and landline phones were blocked? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-07-31 01:15 |
| #6 7000 Turks surrounding Incirlik a NATO nuclear base. Numerous dump trucks at the base at 3A.M. large enough to carry just about anything out of the base. Communications into the base do not work anymore. Email (via internet) and landline phone calls do not go through. Cut and past the following Incirlik discussion link. https://twitter.com/hashtag/i%CC%87ncirlik |
| Posted by: Percy McCoy7690 2016-07-31 01:03 |
| #5 What if we evacuated all troops to nearest safe place and all nukes suddenly exploded do to Turkish clumsy nosiness? Tragic accident eh? |
| Posted by: Sgt.D.T. 2016-07-31 01:02 |
| #4 1979 deja vu. |
| Posted by: charger 2016-07-31 00:12 |
| #3 Barack Obama supports Erdogan. Not our troops. "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." |
| Posted by: Percy McCoy7690 2016-07-31 00:10 |
| #2 Better get the nukes out. Erdogon is going on to dreams of sultan. But ISIS will wind up with the nukes. |
| Posted by: badanov 2016-07-31 00:07 |
| #1 Better get the nukes out. Erdogon is going on to dreams of sultan. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2016-07-31 00:06 |