Merkel to raise Incirlik issue in meeting with Erdogan

By Ayhan Simsek

BRUSSELS (AA) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Ankara on Thursday to allow German lawmakers to visit the troops stationed in Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Brussels on the sidelines of NATO leaders’ summit, Merkel said she would raise the Incirlik row at the meeting.

"I will tell him that this is something indispensable for us," Merkel stressed.

"Because our army is a parliamentary army. Our lawmakers should be able to visit our troops. Otherwise we will have to leave Incirlik," she added.

Since 2015, Germany has stationed six Tornado surveillance jets and a tanker aircraft at Incirlik, along with around 260 personnel, providing intelligence and logistics support for anti-Daesh operations.

Situated in southern Turkey, the base is the main site for launching airstrikes against Daesh in Syria.

Turkey has been reluctant to give permission for German lawmakers to visit the base amid ongoing tensions between Berlin and Ankara.

Last June, the German parliament approved a controversial motion which described the deaths of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as “genocide”, sparking outrage in Turkey.

Most recently, earlier in May, Germany granted political asylum to a number of Turkish ex-soldiers suspected of involvement in last year's coup attempt, further straining relations.

Berlin has repeatedly underlined the importance of visit of German lawmakers with troops stationed abroad, saying the German army was not under the control of the government, but the parliament.