BERLIN (Sputnik) — Germany may withdraw its troops from the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey after its delegation was barred from visiting the facility, parliamentary speaker Norbert Lammert told local media.
"It should probably be underscored again that Bundestag only allows sending German soldiers on international missions abroad when they are needed and welcome there," Lammert told the German newspaper Sueddeutschen Zeitung on Monday.
The German parliament’s decision in June to label the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide soured relations between NATO allies, prompting Ankara to bar German lawmakers from visiting the Incirlik airbase last month.
Germany has military Tornado jets stationed in Turkey. It has been flying them on surveillance missions in Syria as part of Berlin’s commitment to the US-led operation against Islamic State militants.
