Mustafa Balbay, one of the columnists of the Cumhuriyet daily, says in his article on Monday, ''U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman explained their plans about the Incirlik air base in southern Turkish city of Adana during the reception on April 23rd and said that they wanted a block permission of Turkey.
''What does block permission means?'' asks Balbay in his article and answers:
1- The United States wants direct permission of the Turkish government, which does not require approval of the parliament.
2- The United States wants a permission without any time limitations.
3- The United States also wants the frame of the permission to be unrestricted.
''This is what the block permission means. But such a permission will also block Turkey's structure as a sovereign state in the scale of Incirlik.
On the other hand, block permission has also a broader meaning. The U.S. Embassy says on its web-page that the United States has been using the Incirlik Base since 1954. It is correct, but not upon such a block permission. The United States wants to have a further privilege in the 21st century.
Turkey-EU relations constitute another dimension of the issue. One of the subjects discussed in the EU is that if Turkey is granted EU membership, the influence of the United States in Europe will also increase thanks to sound relations between Turkey and the United States.
Steps to be taken by Turkey nowadays about its relations with the United States, will yield quite serious results,'' Balbay says.