Ankara will join the anti-ISIS coalition by providing jets and airbases as part of an agreement with the US, the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement citing the growing threat to Turkey’s security posed by the jihadists.
“Turkey and the US have decided to deepen ongoing cooperation in the fight against Daesh [Arabic acronym for ISIS],” the Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said on Friday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on Friday that Ankara has agreed to let the US use the Incirlik air base located near the city of Adana in southern Turkey for the coalition’s military operation against the jihadists. He told reporters that it will be used “within a certain framework.” The US Air Force contingent of about 5,000 airmen has been stationed there under an agreement between the two states as of 2002.
“Based on the authority provided by the Parliament on Sept 2nd, 2014, the Cabinet approved the deployment of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States and some regional countries joining aerial campaigns against Daesh [ISIS] in our bases. Turkish Air Forces will also be instructed in mentioned operations,” the Foreign Ministry statement said, as quoted by the Hurriyet daily.