Incirlik Air Base: Post-Coup Power Cut Remains
at U.S. Site
Jul 20 2016, 2:24 pm ET
by F. Brinley Bruton , Abigail Williams and Courtney Kube
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/tur...ns-u-s-n613086
A Turkish air base widely believed to house U.S. nuclear weapons
continued to rely on backup generators Wednesday, five days after
a
failed coup plunged the country into crisis.
Commercial power was cut to Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey
and the airspace above it closed within hours of Friday's attempted military
takeover in the NATO country.
Turkish commanders at the site were later arrested and led away after
they were accused of allowing at least one tanker aircraft to refuel
jets involved in the thwarted mutiny.
As the
government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan deepens its purge of
military and civilian officials accused of being involved in the putsch,
there
were few indications when exactly electricity to Incirlik would be
turned back on.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that he was
confident that power would be restored, and it could happen
within a day or so.
No one is locked anywhere on the base, which has about
2,700 Defense Department civilians and military personnel,
officials said. But people were not permitted to leave
Wednesday for security reasons.
Turkish officials did not respond to requests for comment and information
on the power cut. Erdogan told CNN earlier this week that power was shut
off at military bases around the country to reduce the risk that conspirators
might be able to use them.
On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner acknowledged
power had been cut to the site — which is used by the U.S. to launch
anti-ISIS strikes.
"There are redundancy measures in place, specifically for this kind of
outage or this kind of instance," he said. Some U.S. flights have also
resumed from the base, U.S. officials say.
Air conditioners, food storage and preparation, and other daily living
requirements on the base depend on power as much as the runway lighting
and air operations systems do.
A senior State Department official told NBC News that the U.S. was
"working through" these problems.
"The Turks have some issues at Incirlik, obviously," Special Presidential
Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL Brett McGurk told NBC News.
ISIL is another term for ISIS.
President Barack Obama brought up the situation at Incirlik with Erdogan
during a telephone conversation on Tuesday, McGurk added.
Behind-the-scenes discussions between the two leaders come amid an
unprecedented crackdown on those with suspected links to
Fethullah Gulen,
the U.S.-based cleric Erdogan accuses of masterminding the military coup.
As of Wednesday, some 8,660 people had been detained throughout the
country — most of them members of the military. Some 15,200 Education
Ministry workers, 8,777 Interior Ministry officials and 2,745 judges had
been fired from their jobs, according to the government.
The government has also "requested" that 1,577 university deans resign
from their jobs.
Turkey has asked the U.S. extradite Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania
and denies any involvement in the attempted coup.
Washington said it was reviewing documents it had received from Ankara
but was still determining if the materials constituted a formal extradition
request. Kerry said he discussed Gulen with the Turkish Foreign Minister
and asked that he send evidence, not allegations.
Despite the tussle over Gulen and escalating
U.S.-Turkey tensions after
suggestions that the U.S. was behind the plot, McGurk said the country's
leaders "have been very clear that there should be no slowdown"
in counter-ISIS operations.
"We obviously look to increase that cooperation but they have a number
of things they are dealing with in Turkey and we'll support them as they
work through that," he said.
A year ago, Ankara agreed to let the U.S.-led coalition launch airstrikes
against ISIS from Incirlik.
After the power cut, some adjustments were made to launch strikes
from locations other than Incirlik, Air Force Lt. Col Chris Karns told
The Associated Press.
The location of aircraft around the region provide options so that
the U.S. can "deliver air power where needed," said Karns, a spokesman
at Air Force Central Command.
But these are temporary measures and do not provide a long-term solution
for Incirlik.
Not only is Turkey the main gateway for foreign fighters traveling in and out
of Syria, it is widely believed that NATO nuclear warheads are stored under
the base. The U.S. has never admitted it houses such weapons at Incirlik.
According to Jeffrey Davis, of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation
Studies, references to "special weapons" kept at the facility was a way of
saying "nuclear" warheads.
The New Yorker magazine also quoted Hans Kristensen, the director
of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American
Scientists, as saying that vaults beneath the base have about 50 B-61
hydrogen bombs — more than 25 percent of NATO's nuclear weapons
stockpile.
Nazli Avdan, assistant professor of political science at the University
of Kansas, said the chaos, uncertainty and Erdogan's crackdown
may eventually result in the U.S. leaving the site.
"There's the possibility of Incirlik Air Base being shut down for good
because there's a nuclear arsenal there," she said.
Andrew Tilghman
