Turkey to Allow Use of Key Air Base for U.S. Warplanes to Bomb ISIS

[onehandle]

Source: New York Times

AMMAN, Jordan — The United States and Turkey have reached an agreement in which manned and unmanned American warplanes will carry out airstrikes against the Islamic State from Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, near the Syrian border, Obama administration officials said Thursday.

The agreement, described by one senior administration official as a “game changer,” came after months of negotiations that culminated on Wednesday with a phone call between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Obama, another administration official said.

The development came as Turkish forces were reported to have engaged in the first direct combat with Islamic State forces on the Syrian side of the border.

Both developments vaulted Turkey squarely into the broader battle with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. It was a step the Turkish authorities had been reluctant to take until now in their effort to protect Turkey’s 500-mile border with Syria, where ISIS is firmly ensconced.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/24/world/europe/turkey-isis-us-airstrikes-syria.html

[kelliekat44]

1. Tell me again how this administration has squandered our relations with foreign governments.

And the coalition for the Iranian nuke agreement was no small matter. Congress is about to blow it all up just because Obama administration succeeded once again.

[freshwest]

17. Yes, this is a big deal. Turkey wasn't helpful about ISIS for a few reasons. Some good, some not. nt

[geek tragedy]

2. pity it took dozens of slaughtered young people for Erdogan to wake up nt

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. He's been playing a very ugly game all along.

[geek tragedy]

4. yup. if you can't take a stand against ISIS . . . nt

[TwilightGardener]

5. Wonder what concessions we had to give them to LET US use our OWN BASES

to fight an enemy that now attacks them too? Refusal to assist the Kurds? Agreeing to take out Assad?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. About time - bravo

Turkey hasn't often been an ally of the west, going back to the Ottoman Empire's colonization of parts of Europe. They were on the wrong side in WWI and neutral about facing Hitler in WWII. Their expeditionary force in Korea alongside other UN troops included pretty good, hard-fighting soldiers, although their self-serving involvement was motivated by their opposition to and fear of the Soviet Union. I hope they can finally show themselves to be true allies of the west.

[Orrin_73]

9. uuhhhm you're wrong

The Ottoman empire filled the gap in the Balkans after the Byzantine empire vanished otherwise someone would have done it and there was no colonization in there like Britain and Spain's colonization of the Americas. No nation in the Balkans speaks Turkish.
The Ottoman empire asked Britain, France en Russia to join them in the WW1 but were rebuffed by all 3 of them and Germany gladly accepted them, personally I think they should have stayed out of the WW1.
If Turkey had entered the WW2 in 1940 against Germany it would have suffered the same fate as the rest of Europe, it was in no condition to stop Germany from invading Turkey. Turkey entered the war in 1945 but 2 weeks later Germany capitulated.
As a Turk I think that Turkey should not make the west's problem Turkeys problem. There are two evils for Turkey now the pkk and ISIS none of them should take the overhand in this war better yet let them fight each other and that's what Erdogan is doing.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. That's a novel take on history

The Ottoman empire tried for centuries to invade southern Europe and succeeded for a number of years. This was a military operation of conquest that took many lives. You are ignoring the 300 year war between the Austrian Hapsburg Empire and the invading Ottomans. You are ignoring even the high point in the Ottoman conquest, their defeat at the battle of Vienna in which 300,000 Ottomans laid siege to the city and were opposed by a combined force of Germans, Poles, and Austrians. Of course the Ottoman Empire sought to colonize and did colonize a wide section of Europe. You are also ignoring the Greek war of Independence and the Serbian Revolution against the Ottoman colonials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_wars_in_Europe

There re many words of Turkish origin that have been incorporated into Serbo-Croatian.

[Orrin_73]

13. No thats not

It was the Ottoman emirate that took the advantage after the Byzantines lost large swats of lands to Serbs, Hungarians and Wallachians (Romanians). It didn't became the Ottoman empire after some 150 years later, in 1359 it was a small north Anatolian emirate.

The number of 300000 is way out of proportion and exaggerated, it would be an impossible task to supply this enormous amount in 1683 even for the Ottomans who where known to be the masters of logistics. Besides the Ottoman (Turkish) population could not muster such a large army. This number is used by nationalists to bolster their pride. There were 40000 janissaries (infanty), 20000 sipahis (cavalry) and some 45000 auxiliary troops including corps engineers and foreigners including Wallachians, Transylvanians, Serbs and Cossacks. So it was not entirely Turk or Muslim. (Next time read more credible sources, wikipedia is not accepted by serious scholars as credible. I advice http://www.amazon.com/Kara-Mustafa-vor-Wien-Geschichtsschreiber/dp/3222114358 a book written by an Austrian historian)

Besides why don't you answer my other points????

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

15. I have answered your points

Curiously, you completely ignore the 300 year war between the Ottoman Empire and the Hapsburg Empire along with Poland and the Germanic people. Your point is that wikipedia is not a reliable source and the numbers of Ottoman soldiers at the siege of Vienna is less than the number I mentioned. So what? You do acknowledge the invasion of Europe by the Ottoman empire but you have invented some kind of fiction whereby they supposedly filled a vacuum left by the Byzantine Empire. It wasn't vacant land. It clearly had people in it who did not want to be over-run, for cultural, religious and self-determinative reason, like any other colonized part of the world. They challenged other powers in the region. They clearly sent troops into Europe, massive armies in fact, some containing mercenaries, but under their control. Into the 1800s they fought with the local natives like the Greeks and Serbians who wanted independence from colonial rule through revolutionary wars. You have not refuted in the least the plain fact that the Ottoman Empire colonized European peoples, over centuries.

I'm not sure what your other points are. You acknowledged in your response that Turkey sided with the Germans in WWI. This alliance occurred for two primary reasons: Turkey was in economic shambles and needed a war. France and Britain were allied with the Russian Empire and Turkey simply would not enter a military alliance with its number one enemy: Russia.

About WWII, you also acknowledge that Turkey was neutral until Germany's defeat was a fait accomlit. Maybe they didn't want to be over-run by Germany but many European countries declared war on Germany out of principle, even knowing they would be over-run. They specifically chose not to ally themselves with those opposing Nazism.

[Orrin_73]

19. Are you stuck in th past?

It seems to me that you have an axe to grind with an empire that does not exist for 100 years!

This topic is about the coming war in the middle east! and not a personal vendetta against history.

[AngryAmish]

12. Geez, ever hear of the Janissaries?

By your reading an all volunteer for like the Fremch Foreign Legion.

[Orrin_73]

14. janissaries started as foreign

Janissaries started as foreign (christian) children that were forcibly taken but beginning in 1580s muslim Turks entered the janissary corps too. It provided a stable salary so Turks (Muslims) were also allowed. The number of Turkic janissaries in the 17th century grew and by the end of the 17th century they were all Turks. By 1683 allmost all janissaries were ethnically Turks.

So what is your point. This discussion was about Turkey's (un)willingness to fight grand old USA's war and not a history class!

[cosmicone]

7. Good ... now let's rain daisycutters on ISIS! n/t

[Telcontar]

16. I like the way you think and would like to subscribe to your newsletter

[restorefreedom]

8. why are we sending piloted aircraft into isis clutches?

they will have a sick party if they capture an american pilot

??

[Charles de Gaudless]

11. Translation

"Now one of OUR boys got killed by ISIS!"

[rollin74]

18. Turkey even reportedly bombed some daesh motherfuckers

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_TURKEY_SYRIA_AIRSTRIKES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-07-24-01-27-43

and suddenly seem to be concerned about security on the Syrian border
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/230720151