Turkey’s invasion of Syria, US criticisms of this, and President Trump’s
threat to literally destroy Turkey’s entire economy are putting
US-Turkey relations at a serious low. With tensions mounting, questions
are also growing about things the US has positioned in Turkey.
A NATO member, the US has a lot of military assets in Turkey. The most
significant, however, must be nuclear weapons. Exact details aren’t
known, but it is widely believed the US has around 50 B61 gravity bombs
in Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base.
It’s not clear this is an immediate problem, but it was enough of a concern that both the State and Energy Departments launched reviews of the plans to evacuate the US nuclear bombs from Turkey soil.
The Pentagon has declined all comments on the matter, and claims no
changes at Incirlik. In the past, if US-Turkey tensions started to rise,
there has always been speculation of expelling the US from the Incirlik
base, an idea favored by Turkish nationalist groups.
The presence of these weapons at Incirlik (and a few other US bases in Europe) is governed by a pact signed by both governments. Because the US remains the owner of these weapons we can remove them without Turkey’s approval.
Time to get moving, then.
In theory. In practice, Turkey can keep the base on a lockdown, if things really go bad.
I would like to see the US expelled from Incirlik. This would hurt US efforts in an Iran war (although the US has plenty of other assets in the region.)
I suspect the bombs are some political part of “You can’t kick us out, and you don’t want to, because you want these nukes to remain here.”
I thought the agreement was to remove nukes from Turkey and Cuba that settled the Cuban missile crisis. So, why are they still there in Turkey? Guess things change, but not the will to destroy.
The agreement to remove nukes from Turkey and Cuba involved missiles. If I’m not mistaken, the nukes at Incirlik are bombs that have to be loaded on aircraft.
Thanks for the correction. Then I guess removing only missiles was just theater for the masses to think all nukes were removed. What’s the difference? both delivery systems work.
Yes, both delivery systems work — but a medium/intermediate range missile fired from Turkey into Russia or from Cuba into the continental US could achieve surprise in a way that bombs that have to be loaded on aircraft and then flown to their targets couldn’t.
There was presumably also a limit to what Kruschev could demand from Kennedy and expect to actually — and verifiably — get as the price of not stationing missiles in Cuba. Even if JFK had agreed to pull the bombs out of Turkey, that would have been a hard thing to prove or disprove had actually happened. The infrastructure for launching planes with conventional bombs doesn’t look especially different from the infrastructure for launching planes with nukes. A missile launch site is more obvious, and more obviously active or inactive.
Thats right, B-61s.. they are not a big deal really, and can easily be transferred to another NATO base. Hopefully not Greece or Bulgaria.. probably Italy temporarily.. God I hate NATO. NATO keeps us in the permawar.
We keep us in premawar, look at what % of GDP the rest of NATO is spending on defense, they seem to have figured it out.
US nukes at Incirlik has been a topic before, many times before. It was a hot topic after a coup attempt seemed to have been run from Incirlik, and the Turkish government response included shutting down the base. It was a topic before then too.
This is one of those things that should have been done a long time ago, but wasn’t for “political considerations” and foot dragging. It just isn’t going to get done, because those who could seem not to want to do it.
It is the same as 50 guys spread along the border by Special Forces. They “can’t” leave in three days? Those particular guys are the sort who could be on the other side of the world in three days, if they were given orders. There is a lot of nonsense in all this. Nonsense about real and dangerous problems like nukes. What is it going to take?
Turkey should keep those nukes. Put a damper on the Yinon Plan.
Yes, indeed, longlance. Turkey keeping those nukes would certainly put a damper on Israeli PM Bibzy Nutty&Yahoo’s Yinon Plan.
Just the latest of many examples of how nuclear weapons don’t make us safer, not ever. US and its nukes should be out of Turkey.
Does anyone believe that the US would nuclear weapons in Turkey armed? They are lumps metal, unless the US inserts arming devices. Trump is stupid but his bosses are not.
well they must be “armable” I wonder what you need to do to make them go Boom. Is it just a contact closure or do you need to send a code to a computer that then controls the timing?
American nukes in Turkey was an issue during the Cuban Missile Crisis.