Germany begins withdrawing from Turkey

Squabbling NATO: Humiliated Germany to Begin Withdrawing From Offended Turkey

A bad Monday for NATO

Russia Insider,
5 June, 2017

A final attempt at solving the Turkish-German impasse has failed. Germany's foreign minister traveled to Ankara but he got nothing. After meeting with the Turks the German official explained Germany has now no choice but to begin the withdrawal process:

Reuters:

Germany has no choice but to begin the process of pulling its forces out of Incirlik air force base in Turkey as the Turkish government will not allow all German lawmakers to visit troops there, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday.

"Turkey has made clear that, for domestic political reasons, it cannot approve visits of all lawmakers," Gabriel told a news conference after meeting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara.

As its operations are approved by parliament, German lawmakers must be able to visit the Bundeswehr, Gabriel added.

"Turkey must understand that in this situation, we must transfer German soldiers out of Incirlik," he said. "In this situation, the Bundestag (parliament) will ask the government to find another location for the German soldiers in Incirlik."

For weeks now Turkey has declined to allow German officials to visit German troops at Incirlik air base, because Germany granted asylum to Turkish citizens wanted by Erdogan on coup charges.

Incirlik hosts 260 German troops with their Panavia Tornado bombers. They are now likely to move to Jordan.

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