January 11, 2004

Turkey OKs Use of Base for Troop Changes

The American military has begun using an air base in southern Turkey for a massive rotation of troops in and out of Iraq, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Sunday in a sign of improved U.S.-Turkish relations.

Turkey's granting permission to use its Incirlik air base marks a sharp contrast to last year, when the country--opposed to the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein--refused to allow U.S. troops on its territory for the war against its southern neighbor.

It also comes as NATO-ally Turkey is increasingly eager to win favor with the United States amid concerns over Iraqi Kurdish demands for greater autonomy in oil-rich northern Iraq. Turkey, and neighbors Syria and Iran, fear Iraqi Kurds might eventually push for independence and bring instability to their borders.
[...]
The use of Incirlik helps the United States as it deals with the largest movement of troops in decades. [Since WWII, actually--Jen] The military is preparing to send some 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq home over the coming months, replacing them with a more mobile, less heavily armed force of about 110,000.

Nice to see our old ally in the region come around!
Turkey probably regretted not backing the US and the Coalition to the hilt the moment Saddam's statue fell in Baghdad.
And thus far, I don't think the Iraqi Kurds have given any indication that they're unhappy with the evolving new Iraqi state and their role in it, such that they're ready to launch a new freedom fight to get their own state, either within Iraq's borders or over into Turkey's.
In fact, the Kurds seem to have been ready and willing to be a part of the solution for the liberation of Iraq and its reconstruction, not another part of the problem, like the Baathists or even the Shi'ites.
Of course, Istanbul has been the scene of 2 terrible Islamist terror bombing events (involving 2 targets each) and that had to have shifted PM Erdogan and the Turks in their position on our Global War on Islamofascist Terror.
And the events of recent months have also shown them how the EU, led by the weasel powers, treats its friends and allies, not to mention its fellow member countries and it could very well be that Turkey isn't so eager to join that basically Franco-German Axis of Weasel after all.
I'm delighted to see them coming to their senses!
Turkey has been a great ally of the US strategically, as well as culturally, and as one of the few functioning secular democracies with a Muslim majority in the Middle East, we need their example.