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| Wilson Visits Key U.S. Ally |
November 18, 2002 |
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| Lawmaker will join Speaker Hastert to visit U.S. Troops and Turkish Allies
Albuquerque, NM - Congresswoman Heather Wilson will join the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, and other members of the House leadership on a trip to Turkey to visit with Turkish leaders and U.S. troops.
Turkey is home to Incirlik Air Force Base, located 10 miles east of Adana, Turkey. Wilson and the House delegation will meet with the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament and will visit with troops stationed at the Air Base. The group will also visit NATO Joint Command Southeast at Izmir, Turkey. The group will receive briefings about U.S. and NATO operations in the area and visit U.S. troops stationed there. F-15`s, F-16`s, and AWACS aircraft are stationed at Incirlik.
Turkey is a close ally of the United States and a NATO member. It has a democratic, secular government with a predominantly Muslim population. Turkey borders on Iraq and Syria and has been the basing point for U.S. forces involved in Operation Northern Watch-the air patrols over northern Iraq. They have also contributed forces to operations in Afghanistan and have played a stabilizing role in Central Asia, particularly with its support of an oil pipeline from that region through Turkey.
For the first time since the founding of Turkey in 1923, a political party with Islamic roots secured a parliamentary majority in elections held in early November. This is an important time to strengthen the US -- Turkish relationship.
Wilson is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. An Air Force Academy graduate and Rhodes Scholar, she served at the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels in the late 1980s where she was involved in negotiating arms control agreements and was responsible for brokering resolutions to some contentious issues between Greece and Turkey. Wilson served on the National Security Council Staff during the first Bush administration where she was responsible for conventional arms control and defense policy matters involving NATO.
Speaker Hastert asked Wilson to accompany him on this visit.
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