Pentagon chief to negotiate with Turkish counterpart to ‘understand’ Erdogan’s Incirlik base claims

 US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday that he needed to speak with his Turkish counterpart to understand how serious President Tayyip Erdogan was when he said he could shut down the Incirlik air base, which hosts US nuclear warheads, Reuters reports.

Erdogan’s warning on Sunday that he could close Incirlik came in response to threats of US sanctions and a separate US Senate resolution that recognized the Armenian Genocide.

“It has not been brought up to me before. The first I heard of it was reading it in the papers as you just mentioned and so I need to talk to my defense counterpart to understand what they really mean and how serious they are,” Esper told reporters.

Turkey could also close the Kurecik radar base, Erdogan added on Sunday.

Esper said that if Turkey was serious about closing down the Kurecik base, it would have to be discussed by NATO.

“They are a sovereign nation to begin with, so they have that inherent right to house or to not house NATO bases or foreign troops,” Esper said.