U.S. can use base

last updated 8 January 2015

Incirlik, Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan said this week he would let the U.S. military use a Turkish base. The U.S. has been seeking access to the Incirlik base for months, seeing it as an ideal hub for U.S. planes making deliveries to Iraq and Afghanistan. The base agreement is the first sign that the two NATO allies are mending their rift over the Iraq war. Turkey, which borders Iraq, angered the U.S. in 2003 by refusing to allow U.S. troops to operate on its territory. Relations worsened last year, when Erdogan called Iraqi insurgents “martyrs” and members of his party described U.S. actions in Iraq as “genocide.” Under the agreement, only nonlethal materials will be allowed to pass through the base.