ANKARA: More than 420 people working at a crucial military air base in southern Turkey have lost their jobs, with some analysts considering it symbolic of decreased cooperation levels with the US and as the Pentagon reconsiders Middle East deployments.
Incirlik Air Base is located in Turkey’s Adana province, near the Syrian border, and it has been a strategic element in ties between Ankara and Washington. It has also played a key role for the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) against Daesh in Syria and Iraq in the past, as well as hosting US nuclear warheads.
The Colorado-based company Vectrus System Corporation, which provides day-to-day maintenance and operation services at the base, terminated the contracts of almost half of its employees at the base earlier this month.
“The base surged to support OIR,” Aaron Stein, director of the Middle East program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Arab News. “The Turkey-based staff for OIR has mostly left. So, the base is going back to its pre-OIR level of people, and that level requires less contractor support.”
Vectrus did not reply to Arab News’ request for comment about its decision to scale back at the base.
Joe Macaron, a resident fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, said the move was largely symbolic as the canceled contracts related to logistical support rather than the US military mission.
“But obviously, it comes against the background of some tensions in the US-Turkish relationship and previous hints by Ankara that it might reconsider the status of the Incirlik base,” he told Arab News. “The Pentagon is reconsidering its deployment across the Middle East and it might be looking to become less dependent on Incirlik without fully exiting this crucial military air base.”
Incirlik air base has been used in the past as a bargaining chip at times of tension between the two countries.
“Turkey may re-evaluate the status of the Incirlik Air Base if the US imposes sanctions,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last month in an interview with pro-government channel A-Haber, referring to the potential fallout from Turkey’s decision to buy an air defense system from Russia.
Washington has threatened to use its Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act to punish Ankara for buying the S-400 system.
Seth J. Frantzman, who is executive director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis, said reports of the US reducing presence at Incirlik, or challenges to the US presence there, have been growing over the last years.
“Whether these reports relate to changes or are just random is unclear and it is important to note that the large interests of the military and history tend to mean the US does not simply walk away from bases, even if it reduces its role slowly over time,” he told Arab News.
The US has invested heavily in the Jordanian Muwaffaq Salti Air Base to expand its presence there.
Hundreds of employees fired from Turkey’s Incirlik air base
https://arab.news/6bet8
Hundreds of employees fired from Turkey’s Incirlik air base
- Incirlik Air Base is located in Turkey’s Adana province, near the Syrian border, and it has been a strategic element in ties between Ankara and Washington
- It has also played a key role for the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) against Daesh in Syria and Iraq in the past
Western medics say Israel is denying access to Gaza over their views
- In December, 37 NGOs were told to cease all operations in Palestinian enclave
- UK Foreign Office: ‘Israel must immediately lift restrictions in line with international humanitarian law’
LONDON: Medics in the UK and US say Israel has denied them entry into Gaza, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Israel is required under international law to allow entry to the Palestinian enclave for humanitarian aid, but medics have told The Guardian that they believe they have been barred for speaking out about the situation there.
James Smith, an emergency doctor from the UK, said: “I can only assume that it was elements of my public profile, because I’m otherwise a white, middle-class, British man with no Palestinian heritage, no criminal convictions.”
He added: “Not just had I spoken to media outlets but I had spoken in a particular way.”
Smith, who was working with the group Medical Aid for Palestinians, said among Israel’s guidelines for allowing NGOs and other staff to enter Gaza are clauses on calling for or participating in boycotts of the country. “It’s the expression of my politics that must have rattled them,” he added.
Consultant surgeon Khaled Dawas, who traveled to Gaza in 2024, told The Guardian that political views of individuals must be the reason for Israel barring access to Gaza.
“I can’t think of anything else,” he said after he was denied access in August and November last year. “I’m not military. I don’t carry anything. I’m no different to the colleagues who have gone in. The only difference is that they haven’t spoken up as much.”
Chicago-based emergency physician Thaer Ahmad said he was denied access to Gaza on four occasions. He believes that his Palestinian-American identity may have been part of the reason.
“This idea of weaponizing access and weaponizing aid, it’s engrained in all of the decisions that we see are being made in Gaza,” he said.
In August, the World Health Organization said the refusal rates for international medics trying to enter Gaza had risen by 50 percent in the previous six months.
In December, 37 NGOs were informed by Israel that they would need to cease all operations in Gaza despite the humanitarian situation in the enclave.
Among those barred is MAP, which said it had struggled to gain any access to Gaza since September, with no reason given by Israeli authorities.
MAP’s CEO Steve Cutts told The Guardian: “Israel’s deregistration of international NGOs and restrictions on medical personnel are part of a wider pattern of measures that are cruelly blocking humanitarian assistance and obstructing independent medical witnesses.”
Victoria Rose, a plastic surgeon from London who was denied entry in 2025, said: “They don’t want anyone going that knows the system, is useful, that is effective, that’s where it seems to be. I don’t necessarily think they’ve got a handle of what I’ve done or said.”
A petition recently filed in Israel’s Supreme Court on behalf of seven denied access requests into Gaza cited the case of British orthopaedic surgeon Graeme Groom, who said he was denied access to the enclave on three occasions since Oct. 7, 2023, without explanation.
“We think it may be because we are bearing witness to what is happening in Gaza,” he said. “Denying us entry is an extension of the policy which has excluded international journalists, and kills Palestinian journalists.”
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “Israel must immediately lift restrictions and allow food, medical supplies and fuel to reach those in desperate need, in line with international humanitarian law.”
