USS Ross Departed From Istanbul
13 Nov 2014 5 Comments
The US, Arleigh Burke class destroyer DDG-71 USS Ross ended its port visit in Istanbul on 13 November 2014 and headed to the Mediterranean.
USS Ross, arrived in Istanbul on 9 November and made a 5 day stop here. She was deployed between 6 and 9 November to the Black Sea where she had performed underway engagement with Romanian Navy. This second deployment of USS Ross to the Black Sea was the shortest deployment of an US Navy warship in 2014.
Ross left early following the assault of two of its crew that were on shore leave.
Early!? US Navy warships stay usually for 3 days.
According to the U.S. press yes, early. I’m in the USA at the moment and this incident has not gone down very well. There’s a lot of pissed off people with Turkey, a supposed partner in NATO
Tony, the unfortunate events happened to the US sailors was a retaliation of some nationalist to “The hood Event”.
The Hood event (Turkish: Çuval Olayı) was an incident on July 4, 2003 following the 2003 invasion of Iraq where a group of Turkish military personnel operating in northern Iraq were captured, led away with hoods over their heads, and interrogated by the United States military. The soldiers were released after sixty hours, after Turkey protested to the United States. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hood_event)
The same comments being made in USA were done in Turkey and a lot of Turks were pissed off to USA a partner in NATO.
Having been at the live end of incidents on the Turkish/Iraq border during Gulf War 1 I know exactly what it’s like there. And the reason why I haven’t set foot there since