I'm chiming in late but I'll add a comment - I was physically there before and after the cold war. There's a lot of outdated thinking and misconceptions about Turkey and Incirlik's role within NATO and supporting the US. Turkey once played an enormous role during the cold war. After the 1st Gulf War however, things changed quickly. One of the lessons learned was that relying on Turkey militarily came at great cost and consternation. Besides, the technical landscape was changing rapidly. Major closures of all the early warning and communications troposcatter sites (referred to as "South of the Alps") were made obsolete by new satellite comm and recon technology. At the time of its use, the cold War monitoring sites and early warning links across Turkey were highly confidential (even though everyone knew all about them). By the mid 80s, over 20 Troposcatter Relay links were in operation on mountain top detachments throughout Turkey. In just a few years all operations were shut down. By the late 90s, the US had begun closing down operations at Incirlik and most other small operations centers around Turkey (and this after enormous expenditure to upgrade US military housing and a new hospital were constructed at Incirlik. It is now a ghost town compared to the way the base looked in 1988. The Pentagon and state department view after the Gulf War was that everyone had grown weary of the "partnership" with Turkey. Since 2008, military-to-military relations have worsened further and bilateral cooperation has deteriorated. ( Source ). It helps to understand that as part of Turkey's "very special pandering" agreement via NATO, anything the US builds, bolts down, or allows to sit idle on a military tarmac in Turkey more than 89 days becomes the property of Turkey. So everything must be continuously rotated in and out of the country (which is why there are no US squadrons based in Turkey - never have been). Since the closure of Karamursel (Cigli Air Base) in 1979, reliance on Turkey has lost support in congress. After the Gulf War and end of the Cold War, Incirlik has been used solely for logistics support to the east and for air refueling. In short, the military community in Washington has long decided that from a standpoint of global security, Turkey has become more trouble than its worth - particularly in terms of tax payer dollars. Operations are kept minimal and used only as a show of diplomatic solidarity between Turkey and the west for other nations in the region to see. Now that Erdogan has nearly declared war on the US, it is certain that the White House is re-evaluating it's staunch military support with Turkey and continued need for Incirlik as a NATO show pony.