The U.S. has suspended flights both to and from Turkey in the wake of the coup against the Turkish government. At present, there are, per the State Department, no updates on when they will resume.
Also suspended: the U.S.-led strike missions against the Islamic State that had been leaving from Turkey’s Incirlik air base.
From the New York Times:
“The Turkish government has closed its airspace to military aircraft, and as a result air operations at Incirlik Air Base have been halted at this time,” Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement. Mr. Cook said United States officials were “working with the Turks to resume air operations there as soon as possible.”
In the meantime, he said, the American military’s Central Command will alter flight operations in an effort “to minimize any effects on the campaign” against the Islamic State.
This is the first major impact of the uprising on the allied campaign against ISIS, but it is unlikely to be the last. Analysts are already predicting further deterioration of relations between the NATO allies as Turkey tightens the screws against what it sees as threats to the government’s stability, particularly if the U.S. does not hand over Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based cleric whom Turkish president Erdogan has accused of being behind the coup, to Turkey.
