Erdoğan ultimatum to close İncirlik air base sends shockwaves across the world

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Sunday announcement that Turkey could shut down Incirlik Air Base, which hosts nuclear warheads, has sent shockwaves across the EU and U.S. as publications flooded their newstream with reports of the Turkish president’s statement.

Erdoğan’s admonition was made in response to threats of U.S. sanctions and a separate U.S. Senate resolution that recognized the Armenian events in 1915 as a “genocide.”

Turkey condemned the U.S. Senate measure last week. Erdoğan suggested on Sunday that Turkey could also respond with parliamentary resolutions recognizing the killings of indigenous Americans in past centuries as genocide.

German publication Deutsche Welle (DW), in a report titled “Erdoğan threatens to close strategic bases to U.S. military,” stated that Turkey had “upped the ante” and would “retaliate against the U.S. if it imposes sanctions on Ankara for its purchase of a Russian missile system.”

Dubai-based Saudi TV channel al-Arabiya announced Erdoğan’s plan to the Arab world, quoting that the president could close down both İncirlik and Kürecik (radar station) and that “Turkey could pass a bill about the killings of indigenous Americans.”

“If it is necessary for us to take such a step, of course we have the authority ... If this is necessary, together with our delegations, we will close down Incirlik if necessary,” Erdoğan said.

Turkey can also close down the Kurecik radar base if necessary, he added. “If they are threatening us with the implementation of these sanctions, of course we will be retaliating,” he said.

U.S. media also widely covered the announcement. ABC news interpreted Erdoğan’s words as a “threat”, saying that the heated arguments between two NATO allies “are driving a growing wedge between the two nations.”

Noting that the U.S. and Turkey had the two biggest armies within the NATO alliance, it also underscored the importance that these two bases signify for Pentagon.

It stated that Incirlik base is “a key staging post for U.S. air operations against Daesh in Iraq and Syria,” and that the Kürecik base hosts key U.S. Army radar used for “NATO missile defense in Europe.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday that he needed to speak with his Turkish counterpart to understand how serious President Tayyip Erdogan was when he said he could shut down the Incirlik air base

Esper said that if Turkey was serious about closing down the Kurecik base, it would have to be discussed by NATO.

“They are a sovereign nation to begin with, so they have that inherent right to house or to not house NATO bases or foreign troops,” Esper said.

“But again, I think this becomes an alliance matter, your commitment to the alliance, if indeed they are serious about what they are saying.”