Small Wars Journal

Turkey's Erdogan Threatens to Close 2 U.S. Military Bases

Sun, 12/15/2019 - 9:14pm

Turkey's Erdogan Threatens to Close 2 US Military Bases – Agence France-Presse

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday threatened to close two strategic military bases used by the United States in Turkey, after Washington warned of sanctions over Ankara buying Russian arms.

"If necessary, we can close Incirlik and we can close Kurecik," Erdogan on the pro-government A Haber television channel. The two bases sit on Turkey's southwest coast, near the border with Syria.

Erdogan has regularly raised this possibility in the past, at times of tension between the two countries.

The U.S. Air Force uses the airbase at Incirlik for raids on positions held by the  so-called Islamic State group in Syria. The Kurecik base houses a major NATO radar station…

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