Turkey allows US military to use air base

The US military has begun using a sprawling air base in southern Turkey for a massive rotation of troops for Iraq, a US official said, a sign of improved relations between United States and Nato-ally Turkey strained over the war.

The permission to use Turkey’s southern Incirlik air base strikes a sharp contrast to last year, when Turkey refused to allow US troops on its territory for the war against its southern neighbour.

It also comes as Turkey is increasingly eager to win favour with the US amid concerns over Iraqi Kurdish demands for greater autonomy in oil-rich northern Iraq.

Turkey, and neighbours Syria and Iran, fear Iraqi Kurds might eventually push for independence, which they believe could bring instability to their borders.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to raise Turkey’s concerns about Iraq during talks with US President George Bush in Washington later this month.

The use of Incirlik comes as a relief to the US military as it deals with the largest movement of troops in decades. The US military is preparing to send some 130,000 US troops in Iraq home over the coming months. The troops are to be replaced by a more mobile, less heavily armed force of about 110,000.

Incirlik is only an hour’s flight from Iraq and the US military has maintained a presence there since the 1950s, making it an ideal location to support the rotations.

There were doubts about the future of the US presence at Incirlik after the snub by Turkey’s parliament last year. The decision, which drove a deep wedge between Turkey and the US, proved an obstacle for US war planners and disrupted plans for a ground invasion from the north.

In a sign of Incirlik’s continued significance, the US military has recently started using the base to transport soldiers out of Iraq as part of the Iraq troop rotations, a US official said last night.

He said the arrangement had been worked out through negotiations between the two countries and “a large number” of troops were expected to pass through Incirlik in the coming months.

Camps in Kuwait and air bases in Germany are also expected to be used in the rotation. Points in Bahrain, Qatar, and Spain could also be used.