Nuclear Weapons 212 - Coup Attempt In Turkey Raises Concerns About U.S. Nuclear Weapons Stored At Turkish Air Base.
The attempted coup in Turkey has been in the headlines recently. The U.S. shares an airbase with Turkey at Incirlik that has been important in the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Although the U.S. government has not confirmed it, the consensus of experts is that the U.S. stores fifty nuclear weapons at Incirlik. The weapons are thought to be B-61 "gravity" bombs from the Cold War era.
During the coup attempt, the forces loyal to President Ergogan surrounded the air base at Incirlik. They turned off the power being supplied to the base and closed the airspace above the base. During this time, the U.S. command in the U.S. section of the air base raised the "security posture" to the highest level tagged as "ready for an imminent attack." The U.S. said that the raised security was caused by general concern for the well being of the troops on the base and not aimed at protecting any nuclear weapons that might be stored there. Experts have pointed out that even if U.S. nuclear weapons at Incirlik were captured by forces hostile to the U.S., the weapons could not be activated without the proper codes from Washington, D.C.
The U.S. has maintained caches of "special weapons" that are assumed to be these nuclear gravity bombs in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey during and after the Cold War. The NATO agreement includes provisions for some NATO members to host U.S. nuclear weapons while other NATO members host bombers which could deliver those bombs during a conflict. These arrangements have been in existence since the 1960s. The stationing of these bombs and bombers was primarily intended to counter Soviet aggressions but it was also useful in discouraging countries such as Germany and Turkey from attempting to acquire nuclear weapons of their own.
Supporters of the NATO agreement say that the existence of these caches of nuclear bombs helps to keep NATO together and projects an image of strength and resolve on the part of the U.S. With rising international tensions and commitments to upgrade nuclear arsenals among major nuclear powers, experts say that removing U.D. nuclear weapons from Europe would not be wise. There have been discussions about the removal of the bombs from Europe but no decision to do so has been made so far.
While there is political opposition to the existence of the bombs in Germany and other countries, Turkey takes comfort from their presence and sees them as a primary benefit of being a member of NATO. The U.S. has also stationed nuclear missiles in Turkey but has either removed them or rendered them inactive during periods of heightened international tension. Critics of storing U.S. nuclear weapons in Turkey point out that political instability in the region makes it dangerous to have U.S. nuclear weapons stored there. The recent coup attempt reinforces concerns about political instability.
Following the recent attempted coup in Turkey, the press in the U.S. has been questioning the U.S. government about the wisdom of having U.S. nuclear weapons in such an unstable region. Government representative have been reluctant to say much about the situation other than that they are confident that any U.S. weapons in Turkey are secure.
Incirlik air base:
