Obama urges rule of law in Turkey, US seeks to resume air operations

President Barack Obama urged parties on all sides of the crisis in
Turkey on July 16 to avoid destabilizing behavior and follow the rule of
law, a day after a coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rocked U.S. efforts to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Turkey
closed its airspace to military aircraft following the coup attempt and
power was cut off to İncirlik air base, which U.S. forces use to launch
air attacks against ISIL. U.S. officials were working with Turkish
officials to resume air operations quickly, the Pentagon said.

Obama
conferred with his national security and foreign policy advisers by
conference call on July 16 morning and reiterated his support for the
“democratically-elected, civilian” government of Turkey.

“While
we have no indications as of yet that Americans were killed or injured
in the violence, the president and his team lamented the loss of life
and registered the vital need for all parties in Turkey to act within
the rule of law and to avoid actions that would lead to further violence
or instability,” the White House said in a statement.

Obama noted the United States needed continued cooperation from Turkey in the fight against terrorism.

The
İncirlik air base in the southeastern province of Adana was running on
internal power sources after a loss of commercial power to the base, the
Pentagon said.

“U.S. officials are working with the Turks to
resume air operations there as soon as possible,” said Pentagon
spokesman Peter Cook.

“In the meantime, U.S. Central Command is
adjusting flight operations in the counter-ISIL campaign to minimize any
effects on the campaign.”

“Clearly the variable here is how long
the closure will last,” said Jeffrey White, a former senior Defense
Intelligence Agency analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy.

“If we’re unable to fly from Incirlik, it will have a significant impact on the air campaign.”

A
prolonged closure of Incirlik’s airspace could force the United States
to divert aircraft based in the Persian Gulf to the Manbij and Raqqa
offensives, constraining the air power available to support Iraqi and
U.S. forces involved in operations against ISIL. It could also
complicate the Pentagon’s ability to resupply and aid the U.S. special
forces inside Syria.

A lengthy halt also could constrain the
operations of U.S. drones, now flying out of Incirlik, to gather
intelligence and strike ISIL leaders in Raqqa and militants based there
who plot and coordinate extremist attacks in Western Europe, White said.

If
İncirlik remains closed for a extended period, U.S. manned and remotely
piloted aircraft will be forced to make much longer flights to targets
in northern Syria and Iraq from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf
and air bases in Qatar and Kuwait, U.S. defense officials said.