Turkey was said to harbor up to 100 U.S. nuclear weapons as part of NATO. But the warheads were long believed to have been based at the Turkish air base at Incirlik rather than Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey.

Baytok said some of the tactical weapons were located in Istanbul while others were in cities near the Black Sea. He defined tactical weapons as those designed to strike former Warsaw Pact states in Europe.

Neither Turkey nor the United States responded to Baytok's assertion. In 1972, he said, Ankara issued its only decision regarding the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal.

"It [the 1972 decision] says no changes will be made on the nuclear weapons in Turkey unless necessary," Baytok said. "This means we haven't received new nuclear weapons nor we have returned the old ones."