Turkey Participation in Counter-ISIS Meeting Limited

JB Andrews, Md.—A notable no-show at the meeting of the defense ministers from counter-ISIS nations was top officials from the Turkish ministry of defense, which is still recovering from last weekend’s attempted coup. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Turkey had representatives at Wednesday’s meeting, though Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik did not attend. Carter said he spoke with Isik on Tuesday and was assured operations at Incirlik Air Base would return to normal “shortly.” The base has been running on backup power since the coup attempt due to issues outside the walls of the base, but Carter said the campaign “hasn’t been affected by that at all.” Carter said the US reiterated that it fully supports the democratically elected administration of Turkish President Recep Erdogan and it is confident that future operations in Turkey will be stable.