German
lawmakers won’t be allowed to visit the Incirlik base hosting German troops
until Berlin takes some “positive steps” toward Ankara, the Turkish Foreign
Minister said.
"It is
not possible to open the Incirlik base for a visit, but we might reconsider the
decision in the future if we see positive steps from Germany,” Mevlut Cavusoglu
said at a joint press conference with the foreign minister of Gabon on Tuesday,
as reported by Turkey’s Daily Sabah newspaper.
He went on
to accuse Germany of “supporting everything that is against Turkey” as he
explained the reasons for the ban.
The minister also called Germany’s “way of
handling Turkey… troubling.”
Cavusoglu’s
statements came ahead of German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel’s visit to
Turkey, which is scheduled for June 5.
The Turkish minister said he would
discuss the issue of Incirlik with his German counterpart during that visit.
Turkish
media reported that the decision to ban German MPs from visiting the base was
taken in response to recent statements made by lawmakers from Germany’s Left
Party, who publicly announced their support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) – an organization that is considered a terrorist group by both Turkey and
Germany.
Since 2015,
the Incirlik base located in southern Turkey has hosted 250 German troops
alongside six Tornado surveillance jets and a tanker aircraft, which are
stationed there as part of the US-led coalition campaign against Islamic State
(IS, former ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and Iraq.
Two weeks
ago, Turkey blocked a scheduled meeting of German MPs with troops stationed at
the base, which was expected to take place on May 16.
Ankara’s decision came
after Berlin’s move to grant asylum to some Turkish nationals, suspected by
Ankara of being linked to the last year’s botched coup attempt.
It was not
the first time that Turkey has banned German lawmakers from meeting the troops
stationed at the base.
A similar incident occurred in 2016, after the German
parliament recognized the Ottoman Empire's massacre of Armenians in the early
20th century as genocide.
Germany
started looking for an alternative to replace the Incirlik base.
On May 19,
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen visited the Jordanian Azraq air
base and said it had “lot of potential.”
Earlier, the German defense minister
confirmed that Berlin is considering eight locations to possibly relocate its
soldiers, but said that the decision concerning the relocation had not yet been
taken.
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