Turkey officially requested acquisition of six MQ-1 and MQ-6 Predator drones from the U.S. in mid-2009 but the request faced opposition from the U.S. Congress over Ankara’s policies regarding Iran and Israel.
“Our interest in acquiring Predator drones is known,” a Turkish diplomatic source told the Hürriyet Daily News on Sunday, without giving details of the content of the negotiations between the two allies.
According to the Washington Post, Washington is still considering Turkey’s request to base a fleet of drones on Turkish soil. Citing an unnamed senior military official, the Post said the Obama administration has not made a decision on the Turkish request.
Turkey officially requested acquisition of six MQ-1 and MQ-6 Predator drones from the U.S. in mid-2009 but the request faced opposition from the U.S. Congress over Ankara’s policies regarding Iran and Israel. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan raised the issue during a meeting with U.S. President Barak Obama during a meeting in Canada in 2010 but what he heard about was congress’s negative attitude toward Turkey.
The U.S. military has flown the unarmed Predators from Iraqi bases since 2007 and shared the planes’ surveillance video with Turkey as part of a secretive joint crackdown on the PKK. Unless a new home for the Predators is found, however, the counterterrorism partnership could cease by Dec. 31, when all U.S. forces are scheduled to withdraw from Iraq.
Turkey asked the Obama administration this year to relocate the Predators to Incirlik Air Base, a joint U.S.-Turkish military installation, according to a senior U.S. military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks have not been made public. “They want to base them in Turkey and allow us to fly them across the border into Iraq,” the official said.
It’s unclear whether U.S. or Turkish officials are seeking formal permission from Iraq to continue the drone flights, or whether Baghdad would simply turn a blind eye to the Predators when they cross into northern Iraq.
If Iraq objected to the drone flights as a violation of its sovereignty, the unmanned aircraft could hover in Turkish airspace and use cameras to peer miles across the border. There is little to prevent the Predators from making incursions, however; Iraq has only a fledgling air force to patrol its skies.
U.S. military officials favor the drone agreement with Turkey as a way to prevent conflict with the PKK from spiraling out of control. They say U.S. cooperation has restrained Turkey from launching bigger offensives into northern Iraq to try to wipe out the PKK
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