BERLIN (Sputnik) – The German Spiegel magazine reported on Wednesday that the fact-finding mission headed by Ralf Brauksiepe, parliamentary state secretary for the country's defense ministry, was prohibited from visiting Incirlik, in a signal that German officials were not welcome guests in Turkey. The move by Ankara followed the decision of the German parliament to recognize the 1915-1916 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
"I can add that the Foreign Ministry looked for a meeting with the Turkish side on various levels yesterday. Finally, we held a conversation with the charge d'affaires in the Foreign Ministry’s building in Berlin where we decisively noted that the state secretary can visit the military base in Incirlik. We explained to the Turkish side that visiting military units was a common practice among the NATO allies… We indicated that we were planning the visit," Chebli said at a briefing.
She pointed out that there was no further development of the situation.
The Incirlik air base is located five miles north of the Turkish city of Adana near the Syrian border and hosts aircraft from the United States, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Kingdom — all of which are part of the US-led coalition against Daesh.
