Despite Turkey’s strategic role in U.S. defense policy, the military needs to have a contingency plan to move its bases out of the country, according to a recent study by a Washington, D.C. think tank.
“Although I join most observers in continuing to believe that the U.S.-Turkish relationship is crucial and that Incirlik’s role is particularly important in the context of the anti-IS (ISIS) struggle, it is clearly time to face the possibility that the U.S. may, against its will, be forced to leave,” wrote Eric Edelman, the former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and current senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
The report, titled, “Covering the Bases: Reassessing U.S. Military Deployments in Turkey After the July 2016 Attempted Coup d’Etat,” emphasizes the importance of trying to maintain Turkey’s role in NATO through all diplomatic means, but also recognizes the fractured relationship between the U.S. and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. – READ MORE
