The move comes after Berlin failed to negotiate a resolution to ongoing tensions with Ankara, which was obstructing inspections of the Turkish base by German MPs. Parliamentary oversight over foreign deployment of German troops is strongly endorsed in the country’s law, RT reported.
“Incirlik is a good airbase for the fight against Daesh (also known as ISIL or ISIS) but we cannot accept not being able to visit our soldiers,” German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday, as cited by Deutsche Welle.
Some 280 troops and several Tornado fighter jets, which are used for reconnaissance missions in Syria, are currently stationed at Incirlik.
The Turkish deployment was approved by the German parliament in 2016 in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris in December 2015.
The six German fighter jets, a tanker plane serving them and the military personnel are expected to be transferred from Turkey to Jordan. The process may take two or three months after the Bundestag approves the suggested redeployment.
“Above all, we should organize the withdrawal so that there is no megaphone diplomacy where we trade insults,” Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told Deutschland funk radio on Tuesday. “We have no interest in pushing Turkey into a corner.”
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Monday Germany can “remove its troops however it wants.”
“There is no decision we have taken on this. They can have it their own way,” he told reporters.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier in May that the military bloc would not take sides in the spat between its members.
“It has no effect on NATO activities,” he said. “The dispute is a bilateral issue between Turkey and Germany.”
(Tasnim)
7/6/17
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