Turkey to Open New Military Base in Qatar
ANKARA (Dispatches) – Turkey will open a new military base in Qatar this autumn, reports say.
"A new Turkish base has been built near Qatar’s Tariq Ibn Ziyad military base,” Hurriyet correspondent, Hande F?rat, said, adding that the military base’s inauguration ceremony was expected to be "unveiled by the Qatari Emir and President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.”
Turkish soldiers were first deployed to Qatar in October 2015, in an attempt to contribute to the regional peace and to boost bilateral relations between Turkey and Qatar. In December 2017, the military base was named the Qatar-Turkey Combined Joint Force Command.
Some reports say about 3,000 Turkish forces are stationed in the Tariq Bin Ziyad base, which has a capacity for up to 5,000 military personnel.
Since Qatar’s Arabic neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, placed Doha under a blockade in June 2017, Turkey’s military presence has taken on greater significance.
The Saudi-led quartet accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, an allegation strongly denied by Doha.
They also presented Qatar with a list of demands and gave it an ultimatum to comply with them or face consequences.
Among the demands was that Qatar shut down the Turkish military base and halt military cooperation with Turkey.
Doha, however, refused to meet the demands and stressed that it would not abandon its independent foreign policy.
"All in all, the (Persian) Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, are uncomfortable with the Turkish-Qatari cooperation. In spite of all this, Turkey is trying to establish a durable security architecture and a military and political domain,” the report said.
"A new Turkish base has been built near Qatar’s Tariq Ibn Ziyad military base,” Hurriyet correspondent, Hande F?rat, said, adding that the military base’s inauguration ceremony was expected to be "unveiled by the Qatari Emir and President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.”
Turkish soldiers were first deployed to Qatar in October 2015, in an attempt to contribute to the regional peace and to boost bilateral relations between Turkey and Qatar. In December 2017, the military base was named the Qatar-Turkey Combined Joint Force Command.
Some reports say about 3,000 Turkish forces are stationed in the Tariq Bin Ziyad base, which has a capacity for up to 5,000 military personnel.
Since Qatar’s Arabic neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, placed Doha under a blockade in June 2017, Turkey’s military presence has taken on greater significance.
The Saudi-led quartet accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, an allegation strongly denied by Doha.
They also presented Qatar with a list of demands and gave it an ultimatum to comply with them or face consequences.
Among the demands was that Qatar shut down the Turkish military base and halt military cooperation with Turkey.
Doha, however, refused to meet the demands and stressed that it would not abandon its independent foreign policy.
"All in all, the (Persian) Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, are uncomfortable with the Turkish-Qatari cooperation. In spite of all this, Turkey is trying to establish a durable security architecture and a military and political domain,” the report said.