The General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece Dimitris Koutsoumbas claimed that nuclear bombs removed from NATO’s İncirlik air base in Turkey will be relocated to Greece’s island of Crete

US airmen load an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile on to an F-16C at the Incirlik air base in Turkey. File photo.

Nuclear bombs dismantled by the United States in NATO’s İncirlik air base in Turkey will be relocated to the largest and most populous of the Greek islands Crete, the General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece Dimitris Koutsoumbas claimed.

There has been no response or comment from the Greek SYRIZA government regarding Koutsoumbas’ statement that was made relying on the peace initiative, Telepolis reported.

It is noted that atomic warheads dismantled from Incirlik air base will be deployed at the military air base Araxos in Peloponnese, while the city of Souda in Crete will reportedly be a central base.

Atomic warheads dismantled from the İncirlik air base will be deployed at the military air base Araxos.

SYRIZA's European Parliament deputy Stelios Kologlu shared the relevant report in a SYRIZA-linked news portal with no comment.

Stating that the Greek government were playing with fire, Koutsoumbas said, "American nuclear bombs, which were dismantled by the protests of the Greek people years ago, will be reportedly brought back to Greece", and asked the government why the authorities had not commented on the issue.

The atomic warheads of type B61, which were deployed by the U.S. in 1978 to the Araxos air base in Peloponese, Western Greece had been removed from the region in 2001 after the struggle of the Greek people.

There are B61 gravity bombs deployed at the İncirlik air base, 68 miles from the Syrian border. The nuclear weapons deployed in İncirlik are ten times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Following the last year’s failed coup attempt in Turkey, there had been reports claiming that nuclear warheads in İncirlik would be dismantled due to security reasons.

The US brought tactical nuclear bombs to Europe and Turkey in the 1950s and 1960s, allegedly to deal with Soviet tank armies that it was feared would pour onto the European battlefield in the event of World War III.

The U.S. had allegedly started transferring nuclear bombs in Turkey to Romania after 'worsening' relations at the time, but the Romanian Foreign Ministry had strongly denied the claims, Euractiv reported in August 2016. Turkey had also threatened the U.S. with shutting down the Incirlik air base as relations deteriorated between Washington and Ankara.