ANKARA, 1 May 2005 — Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has approved a government decree allowing the United States to use a key military base in the south of the country as a logistical cargo hub for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Anatolia news agency reported. Sezer’s approval late Friday brought to an end months of negotiations between the two countries amid bilateral tensions stemming from differences over Iraq and constituted another step toward improving strained ties.
The details of the deal were not disclosed, but US officials here earlier said they had requested permission to fly in “nonlethal” logistical material to Incirlik air base in southern Adana on civilian cargo planes and redistribute the goods to Iraq and Afghanistan on military aircraft. The cargo flights would not carry any troops, ammunition, or personnel, but only supplies and equipment to support forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The United States was also requesting blanket clearance for planes landing and taking off from the base, officials said. The deal will not require the approval of the Turkish Parliament, as it will fall under the scope of an earlier government decision allowing countries involved in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to use Turkish transportation facilities for logistical and humanitarian purposes. The Turkish Parliament stunned Washington just before the occupation of Iraq in March 2003 when it denied US troops access to Turkish territory for a planned invasion of Iraq from the north.
Meanwhile, one police officer was killed and four others were injured yesterday when a parcel bomb exploded in the hands of a bomb disposal expert in a seaside resort town in western Turkey, a local official said.
The blast occurred as a chief superintendent mistook the parcel, left in a public toilet in Kusadasi town in Aydin province, to be harmless and was carrying it back to his vehicle without wearing any protective gear, the province’s governor Mustafa Malay said. The 50-year-old officer, who suffered severe abdominal injuries in the explosion, later died in hospital, Malay told reporters in Kusadasi, the Anatolia news agency said.
The governor had earlier said that the blast had occurred when police were carrying out a controlled explosion on the parcel. The injured officers were being treated in nearby hospitals, but there was no word on their conditions. No civilians were injured in the explosion. Malay said there was as yet no information on who had left the package but added that police were conducting a thorough investigation to catch the perpetrators. Underground left-wing organizations have in the past carried out similar bomb attacks in major Turkish cities.
