Turkey and the Russian Threat

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

The Turkish military is concerned about Russian forces in Syria, but there may be a political solution to the issue, a Turkish general said on Sept. 28. “We have some concerns about it for the military aspect,” said Lt. Gen. Salih Ulusoy, J-5 on the Turkish General Staff, speaking at the American Turkish Council’s 34th Annual Conference on US-Turkey relations. “It’s [a] big danger for us,” potentially leading to Turkey “being dangerously flanked by Russia on two fronts,” he said. Ulusoy was joined on a panel by James Townsend, deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy. Townsend said rumors that the US-Turkey military relationship is in trouble are “not true,” pointing to Incirlik Air Base, which he noted was a key location in the Cold War, the “epicenter for Operation Northern Watch—our joint effort to police the skies over Iraq in the late 1990s,”—and is now a “critical node in our joint fight against Daesh [another term for ISIS].” Townsend said he was particularly impressed with how quickly the US and Turkish militaries moved to make and implement plans for flights over Syria after the two countries’ p?residents spoke.

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org