ISTANBUL, TURKEY – Turkey’s air force – one of the largest in NATO – is in turmoil after senior officers led an attempted coup against the government on July 15.
Hundreds of senior air force officers have been arrested for their alleged role in the fracas, which has left nearly 300 civilians and military personnel dead mainly in Istanbul and Ankara.
Personnel from the army sealed off the two bridges connecting Europe and Asia in Istanbul, while in the capital, Ankara, troops seized a number of government and media buildings.
Several senior military officers were held hostage by those staging the coup. The rebels also made an audacious raid using several helicopters in Istanbul in a bid to secure the current Turkish air force chief, Gen. Abidin Ünal, and there was a reported attempt to capture President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he vacationed in Bodrum in the south of the country.
Soldiers with tanks captured both of Istanbul’s airports, Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen; both suspended operations, which were re-started the following day.
Air force F-16s and army helicopters were used to attack targets in Ankara including the main parliament building and the city’s police headquarters. F-16s made repeated low-level, high-speed show-of-force passes over Ankara as well as along the Bosporus in Istanbul.
In an extraordinary address on the CNN Turk news channel, president Erdogan appeared using a smart phone video messaging application and urged the public to fight against the army.
He later flew to Istanbul.
By failing to capture senior government ministers and the president himself, the coup attempt began faltering. Several senior officers attempted to escape by helicopter, but oneSikorsky S-70 Black Hawk was shot down by a Turkish F-16, and another S-70 was used by a number of officers to flee to Greece, where those on board requested asylum. The helicopter was later returned.
Turkish officials also cut external power to Incirlik airbase, where U.S. German, and Saudi Arabian aircraft are based to support operations against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
The government said a number of senior officers at Incirlik supported the attempted coup by flying aerial refuelling aircraft to support the F-16s flying around Ankara and Istanbul.
Coalition operations at Incirlik re-started on July 17.
Among those under arrest include the former Turkish air force commander, Gen. Akin Ozturk who is alleged to have masterminded the coup attempt. Others arrested including the base commander of Incirlik airbase, and the operations commander at Konya airbase, Col. Mustafa Erturk, whom this publication interviewed just last month about multinational Anatolian Eagle exercise. A large number of army and navy senior officers have also been detained.
The incident could lead to a souring of relations between Turkey and the U.S. particularly after the disruption caused to the air campaign on Islamic State, but also with regards to the security of dual-key nuclear weapons located at Incirlik, it also may prompt concern about the future security of a number of high-value arms procurements such as Turkey’s plans to purchase the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.