July 18, 2016
Thousands of military officers, (click here) soldiers and other suspects linked to a failed coup in Turkey have been arrested, authorities said Monday, amid signs that the campaign against the alleged plotters was turning into a crackdown on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's opponents.
The country's justice minister said that as many as 6,000 people had been detained by Monday.
Among those arrested was the commander at Incirlik Air Base, which is used by U.S. forces to launch raids against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, a senior Turkish official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. General Bekir Ercan Van was detained along with 10 other soldiers on Monday. The facility is a major NATO installation hosting U.S. forces that control a stockpile of nuclear weapons....
Why did this happen?
The nukes.
Daesh is losing it's footing in Syria and Iraq. The truth is, the Turkish military is fairly unimpressive, primarily because the NATO forces are involved in the country.
This is from RT. Of course, Russia would be interested in this tidbit of news.
16 July 2016
Movement in and out of the Incirlik airbase (click here) in southern Turkey was blocked on Saturday by local military authorities. The NATO base stores US tactical nuclear weapons.
ccess to the base has now been restored and flights are again allowed in its airspace, Daily Sabah reports, citing the US consulate in Turkey.
"Local authorities are denying movements on to and off of Incirlik Air Base. The power there has also been cut," the US consulate in Adana said in a message.
"Please avoid the air base until normal operations have been restored," it added. No further details were provided.
According to CNN, power to the facility was also cut.
The closure of the airspace reportedly led to a halt in US air strikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). CNN was told by sources that the Turkish authorities did make an exception for US aircraft that had already been deployed on missions before the airspace was shut and allowed them to land at the base....
