As the Marmara Sea and Turkish Straits are situated in a increasingly militarized and strategic region of the middle east, what is their importance in relation to the Kumburgaz case. With larger NATO allied nations possessing jets and helicopters equipped with more sophisticated censors and advanced photographic capabilities they are more capable than ever. Discussed in this post are the geographic locations of Turkish, NATO, and U.S. air bases in Turkey.
Historically there are several incidents in other countries that involved a military response to unidentified aircraft within a nation's airspace. Take for example the 1976 Tehran UFO Incident was a radar and visual sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) over Tehran, the capital of Iran, during the early morning hours of 19 September 1976. During the incident, two F-4 Phantom II jet interceptors reported losing instrumentation and communications as they approached, only to have them restored upon withdrawal; one of the aircraft also reported suffering temporary weapons systems failure, while preparing to open fire.
And more recently it was reported that UFO sightings have stumped numerous military groups in India, including their air force, NTRO technical intelligence agency and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police when more than 100 UFOs were been seen along the India-China border between Aug. 1 and Oct. 15 of 2012. The sightings, which have officials puzzled, were of yellowish spheres that appeared to lift off from the horizon on the Chinese side and slowly traverse the sky for three to five hours before disappearing.
- After the Cyprus conflict Turkey decided to close down all the American bases on its territory, except for those that also implied NATO activities. Although two bases were left open run by Turkish, British, and American personnel focused only on NATO operations.
- The Turkish Air Force and aerial warfare service branch, not any other country, has the primary responsibility for intercepting unknown aircraft and protecting Turkish airspace.
Detailed Below Are Some Of The Strategic Military Air Base Locations Near The Sighting Area.
Izmir Air Force Base Turkey - NATO
Izmir Air Base is 200 miles southwest of the witness location. Currently it is operated by the
Turkish Air Force and NATO command including some USAF.
Izmir Air Force Base, Turkey is one of the strategic military installations with US Air Force personnel in Europe. The Izmir Air Station is the oldest NATO base in Turkey and its importance has increased in recent years. The headquarters of NATO’s Allied Air Component Command for Southern Europe has been located in Izmir since August 11, 2004. Although the base is seen as being run by the Americans, it is not quite like that. The United States of America are not among Turkey’s best friends. It now it mostly concentrates on NATO activities. The USAF squadron does everything normally accomplished by a wing, with the exception of operations.
Incirlik Air Force Base Turkey - NATO
NATO’s Incirlik Base, which is located eight kilometers (five miles) east of Adana, Turkey’s fifth largest city, and 56 kilometers (35 miles) from the Mediterranean Sea, is an important regional logistical air base. The base is near Ardana, the fifth most important city in Turkey, close to the Middle East. The population is mostly American – over 5000 troops. However, the base also hosts a few hundred British and Turkish soldiers. The place has two runways. One is 3 km long, while the secondary one is about 2.7 km. Turkey allows the United States to use the air base for operations associated with its air campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Between 2007 and 2009 the US used Incirlik to launch operations mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Incrilik Base is located 473 miles southeast from the witness location.
With the ongoing situation in the middle east the United States uses the Izmir Air Base, with permission from Turkey, for operations in nearby Syria and also Iraq both bordering countries.
Akinci Air Base TAF 4th Air Wing
Akıncı AFB hosted the 4th Air Wing of the Turkish Air Force's 1st Air Force Command. It opened in 1960 with the purpose of defending Ankara. On April 25, 1996, the nuclear mission at the Akıncı AFB was deactivated following the end of the Cold War. Before July 2016 six Weapons Storage and Security System vaults were operational in stand-by status at the air base. During the July 2016 coup attempt Akıncı runway thresholds were bombed to prevent pro-coup forces from landing or taking off. Following the failed coup, Akıncı Air Base was redesignated. Initially named "Murted" the base is currently used by Turkish Aerospace Industries which is the center of technology in design, development, manufacturing, integration of aerospace systems, and modernization.
Bandırma Airport TAF 6th Air Force Wing
Bandirma is a military airbase and public airport located at Bandırma in the Balıkesir Province, Turkey. It is home to the 6th Air Wing of the 1st Air Force Command of the Turkish Air Force. Of the installations in Turkey it is one of the least frequently used.
Bandirma is 50.4 miles across the sea from the sighting area.
Balıkesir Base TAF 9th Air Force Wing
Balıkesir is a military airport in the city of Balıkesir, Turkey home to the 9th Air Wing of the 1st Air Force Command of the Turkish Air Force. Other wings of this command are located in Eskisehir, Konya, Ankara, Akıncı, and Bandırma.
Balikesir is 99.2 miles from Kumburgaz.
Were Any Military Or Air Force Exercises Taking Place?
To see if this is possible the first thing I did was check the annual drill known as "Anatolian Eagle" to find out of this operation or any other were taking place at the time of Yalcin's filming.
Anatolian Eagle Joint Turkey NATO Air Force Exercise
Anatolian Eagle is an air force exercise hosted by the Turkish Air Force and held in Konya, Turkey. There are both national and international exercises held, the international exercises usually involving air arms of the United States, other NATO forces, and Asian countries. Anatolian Eagle exercises simulate a war-time environment and the difficulty level increases from easy to hard. First the training exercise is planned in the 'White Headquarters' building. Training is monitored with computers to help test knowledge, abilities and find deficiencies of the participants. The scenarios consist of a "Blue Team" which attacks tactical and strategic targets in a "Red Land" during Combined Air Operations (COMAO). The Red Land is defended by opposing combat aircraft and surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. Statistical studies are also completed in the White Headquarters.
To see if this annual exercise was scheduled on any of the dates involved in the Kumburgaz UFO incidents it's possible to cross check with the published AE exercise schedule posted by the Turkish Air Force. (listed below)
2007 to 2009 Anatolian Eagle Schedule
1 sighting date out of 23 occurred during the AE exercise.
The Kumburgaz case sightings and video dates were: 2007 -- June 22, July 30, Aug 1, Aug 7, Aug 10, Aug 12, Aug 24. 2008 -- May 23, May 27, May 29, June 8, June 9, June 11, June 12, June 16, July 2, July 4, Aug 30, Aug 31, 2009 -- May 13, May 14, May 15, May 17
In total there were 23 individual dates in which video was taken of something unknown in the sky near Turkey at varied lengths in minutes. Because almost all of the footage, 22 different segments, occurred on days when Anatolian Eagle was not taking place it's not likely to be the cause of whatever was filmed. The 6-22-07 segment was the only one that overlapped with Anatolian Eagle. As the investigation continues maybe we will learn of other exercises, however as it stands, there is nothing pointing in that direction.
Another reason Turkey's annual drill probably wasn't responsible for a misidentification is that it takes place in Konya which is 305 miles away from the sighting area and behind a mountain range.
Is There Any Evidence The Turkish Air Force Responded To The Unknown Objects?
Even though the answers to this question remain elusive, overall the case has shown insufficient credible evidence to reach any solid conclusion indicating jet or helicopter interaction. More analysis needs to be completed, however the 7 to 8 witnesses on record have not claimed to observe military jets nor hear any.
A couple factors might explain why nothing has surfaced demonstrating a military reaction.
-- The armed forces and Turkish Air Force are notorious for being highly secretive, generally more so than other democratic countries in the region. Based on their reputation if there was a TAF reaction the chances are that news media and the public wouldn't be briefed on the matter.
-- UFO sightings in Turkey are nothing surprising. Turkish culture is generally more accepting of esoteric subjects and over centuries of history has grown used to hearing stories of the paranormal. It could be possible that government authorities could be so accustomed to UFO sightings that it no longer uses valuable military resources to approach them unless near restricted air space zones.
But there have been several cases involving Turkish commercial pilots who have gone on the record with their UFO encounters. For example, recently reported in Sabah the recollections of two pilots who had encounters with UFOs. Turkish Airlines pilot Ibrahim Bilir says he believes in UFOs because he has seen one. According to Sabah, Bilir encountered the UFO five years ago on a flight from Osaka, Japan to Istanbul.
The following is Bilir’s account translated into English:
" Five years ago on the return from Osaka, continuing on the same route we included the team of four aircraft we saw that object. We came upon us out. Right continued over us on the cross. We saw a strong light, silver color and cannot take care of UFO shape We have not seen. He came to our very close. I did not believe UFOs, I believe that mission.
“We were flying three pilots. 38 thousand feet in 6 hours after departure (11 thousand meters) 4 were flying plane in the same direction. In front of me again THY flight from Shanghai was there behind me Lufthansa aircraft. Upcoming we saw a strong light. He came to our very close . Silver color and do not look, do not open your eyes. An incredible power, there were ten forces. Different anything, burn your eyes. Our plane was seen in all three pilots. He came upon us out. He continued right above us on the cross. They were between 35-45 seconds .
"Therefore see four teams simultaneously. Strange thing is that everyone thinks it onto itself. If it was hallucinating about a person, but the team has seen the four planes. It was a very bright light silver in color. It was so bright that it hurt their eyes to look at it directly. At least three pilots had seen the UFO."
The story also includes a second pilot sighting. This sighting was in October of 1989 on a flight from Zurich to the Turkish town of Antalya.
The pilot, TK Selahattin, told Sabah, again translated into English:
"I left later in Yugoslavia airspace, we have seen two thousand meters away from an object. First we thought the aircraft. However, the light cluster will attract our attention to the sharpness of what is wondering we have. Light set, passed in front of us after 10 minutes. Suddenly he took on three primary colors. several times the normal plane in a big way began to fly in front of us. They said they have not seen such a body when we contacted the Istanbul tower. Fields, scattering their multicolored lights rose to 44 thousand feet and turned into a ball of white light. Then he disappeared into sharp rises a white ball of light."
Both incidents occurred several years earlier than the Kumburgaz case and there is no evidence they are related. Special thanks to Openminds.tv for providing the story. Source
Were Any Military Jets Or Helicopters Filmed?
The next step is to try and determine if the raw footage captured any human aircraft, but it's not clear enough to know for sure. A trained independent video analyst would be needed to get closer to an answer. Even though there are a few areas of the film I have found that appear to show secondary objects, they realistically could be anything, but still raise the curiosity level. What were the other objects doing? Could they have an explanation?
Unfortunately it's too distant to see detail, but this July 30, 2007 video, shot by Yalcin from the balcony of his father's condo shows an object moving left to right eventually behind someone's chimney. We are left to purely speculative it's origin.
Both sequences were taken consecutively. Could it have been the exact object seen 25 minutes earlier in the same area or was it a helicopter? Because it's so hard to see we might never know the answer.
Next...
A seperate additional unidentified object is present in the May 15th, 2009 segment taken just after sunrise at 5:21 a.m. To the right of the four circular lights is another object.
An additional unknown object was filmed on May 15, 2009
Also on July 2, 2008
It is not entirely possible to conclude exactly what the additional orange lights were, but none the less, they are an interesting element that could benefit from more analysis. There are several factors which seem to point away from these additional objects being an F-16 or other military jet, such as traveling speed, the objects seem to hover motionless unlike a jet, and lack of other characteristics.
General Summary
-- There are several Air Force bases within a range of 200 miles from the sighting location. 2 of them have U.S. and NATO personel. With permission from Turkey, NATO is allowed to use their base to launch operations in Syria and Iraq.
-- Turkey itself, and no other nation, is in charge of handling a military response to unknown aircraft within the country's borders.
-- "Anatolian Eagle", the annual Air Force exercise in Turkey, apparently wasn't occurring during the sighting and video dates.
-- So far no eyewitnesses have come forward who observed or heard military jet activity.
-- Overall, during my investigation, I haven't found any solid evidence yet pointing towards any Turkish Air Force and/or military activity during the Kumburgaz case.
