Turkey: Government’s compliance with the arms shipment to Israel contradicts its call for peace (Daily Evrensel) August 15, 2006 The Assembly representative of the People’s Republican Party (CHP-RRP) from Denizl ibrought charges against the Turkish government for allowing the US to secretly transfer arms to Israel from Incirlik US air force base. CHP-PRP representative Mustafa […]
Turkey: Government’s compliance with the arms shipment to Israel contradicts its call for peace (Daily Evrensel)
August 15, 2006
The Assembly representative of the People’s Republican Party (CHP-RRP) from Denizl ibrought charges against the Turkish government for allowing the US to secretly transfer arms to Israel from Incirlik US air force base.
CHP-PRP representative Mustafa Gazalcı asked the government to officially answer the charges being reported in newspapers that the among the secret transfers the US is conducting from its Incirlik base were F-16 jet fighter bombs, cannon rockets and ammunition for the M1 automatic rifles. He asked if the government had made a deal with the US to conduct such secret transfers during Israel’s attacks against Lebanon.
He asked, “Has the government allowed the US to use the air force base for this purpose? And if it has, doesn’t this contradict your public position for calling a ceasefire in Lebanon? How is the government planning to prevent such incidents occurring again in the future?”
Where did the transferred ammunition go?
Last week, the ammunition transfers the US conducted through land to Mersin port from its Adana/Incirlik air force base had raised suspicion. While the US authorities tried to explain that the ammunition was being returned back to the US, the reports claimed the ships that loaded the containers were headed to the Southern Cypriot air force base BAF where the containers were being sent to Israel.
The Turkish Foreign Affairs Department on the other hand defended the ammunition transfer as “According to the defense and economical agreements between the US and Turkey, the overstocked ammunition has been transferred out of the base.”
This announcement failed to explain the reason or the destination of the transfer.
The Ankara correspondent for the Jane’s Defense magazine, Lale Sarıibrahimoğlu said while they did not have sufficient information on the issue, it was a fact that Turkey had the right to inspection in the base and had the full knowledge of the movements.
Source: Evrensel Daily.
