James hadn't been back on his second rotation long when everything
started to get very serious. The elections in Turkey were too close, with no
clear winners. Nobody had enough power to control things and as a result they
quickly lost all control. The nation was suddenly on the verge of open civil
war. The United States Air Force, as well as the NATO ground forces had been
pulled into their bases within Turkey. Those two forces combined with Turkey's
military forces should have been more than a match for the rebel forces. The
problem was that the division caused by the election had also divided the
military forces of Turkey. Those divided forces took one of two sides. One side
wanted America and the U.N. to remain and the other wanted them out. That power
struggle was what was going to push things over the edge soon. The military
hadn't completely split, but some units had broken off. It was those units
along with the constant rebel presence that had become an immediate threat.
NATO had several key bases in Turkey that were not large enough to stand alone,
but too critical to efforts of regaining any stability to abandon. Those were
now constantly under threat of attack.
A lot of effort was spent in securing those smaller NATO bases, but that
proved to be a near catastrophic mistake. Those attacks turned out to be a ploy
to pull forces away from the real objective of the main opposition forces. They
had been watching and waiting for the right time to strike. They caught the
military out of position and pinned a large U.N. relief force in the major city
of Izmir. That hadn't been expected. It was a major port and tourist
attraction, but it was also critical to controlling the rest of the nation.
They had the city basically bottled up and cut off. The rebels had managed to
take the port itself while also cutting the main roads and rail routes. The
city was still under government control, but it was isolated and couldn't hold
for long without removing the road blocks or taking back the port. It being a
large and historic city made that very hard to do without major damage to
important parts of the city and high civilian casualties.
Things looked to be turning around enough to restore more control of the
city to the ruling government, after only a few very bad days in the city. The
problem had been created by the government feeling secure in the strength of
its support inside the city. As a major tourist destination the city had been
heavily dependent on western influence and money. The majority of people inside
Izmir leaned heavily towards keeping relations with the west strong. The belief
in that support had caused the withdrawal of most Turkish and many NATO forces
from the city to support the smaller more isolated bases in the more
anti-western areas of the nation. The weakened U.N. relief forces that remained
had been hit suddenly and were overwhelmed. It was only later that it was
discovered that those within the military with anti-western feeling had
actually manipulated things to keep troops supporting them within the city. The
rebel attacks had actually been supported by most of the very Turkish military
units left behind in the city to stop them.
But the biggest mistake wasn't the loss of
the city. That could be corrected in time due to the overwhelming support of
the people living there. The biggest problem came when the government rushed
troops back towards the city. They didn't take the time to think it out and
coordinate the troop movements with the U.N. and NATO forces that could aid
them with restoring order. They simply loaded up troops and equipment and sent those
rushing across the nation towards Izmir. The result was one large Turkish military
storage facility was left vulnerable. The rebels were constantly watching for a
chance to lay their hands on much needed weapons and this was a huge chance.
They hit the facility hard.
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