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| Europe |
| France questions if Turkey a ‘viable’ partner in Islamic State group fight |
| 2016-07-18 |
| [FRANCE24] La Belle France's foreign minister said on Sunday that questions needed to be asked about whether ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... is a viable partner in the fight against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... (IS) group in Syria. "There are questions that are being asked and we will ask them. It (Turkey) is partly viable, but there are suspicions as well. Let’s be honest about this," Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told La Belle France 3 television. He said he would raise the issue at meeting of the anti-Islamic State (IS) group coalition in Washington next week. A French official later sought to clarify Ayrault’s comments, saying he had not meant to call into question NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... member Turkey’s viability in the US-led coalition’s fight against the IS group, and that Ankara remained a crucial partner. Anti-IS group strikes resume Ayrault’s comments came as the US Department of Defence announced that air strikes had resumed from the critically located Incirlik air base in south-eastern Turkey. The air base was closed temporarily during the coup attempt in the country on Friday. "As a result, counter-ISIS coalition air operations at all air bases in Turkey have resumed," Pentagon front man Peter Cook said in a statement, using an acronym for the IS group. "US facilities at Incirlik are still operating on internal power sources, but we hope to restore commercial power soon. Base operations have not been affected." The Turkish military has recently ramped up its own operations against the jihadist group, which controls swaths of territory along its border. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 I vaguely knew much of this - from Wikipedia. Even the early years of its existence proved the value of the presence of the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, not only to counter the threat of the communist Soviet Union during the Cold War, but also to responding to crises in the Middle East, such as in Lebanon and Israel. Pilots began flying U-2 reconnaissance missions by late 1957, including nonstop flights back and forth between Incirlik and a NATO Air Base at the Norwegian town Bodø starting in 1958. The Incirlik Air Base was the main U-2 flight base in this entire region beginning in 1956. Until 1 May 1960, when Soviet SA-2 surface-to-air missiles shot down the U-2 of the Francis Gary Powers near Sverdlovsk, Russia. I didn't notice anything about B-52s being based there. So not so useful today. Maybe Champ wants to trade it off? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2016-07-18 13:25 |
| #2 I think we are going to find out just how critical Incirlik is when the Turks shut it down. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2016-07-18 10:18 |
| #1 "...critically located Incirlik air base." If it was so critical, why did it take so long to make use of it in the fight with ISIS? |
| Posted by: Voldemort Barnsmell8316 2016-07-18 07:22 |