BERLIN (Sputnik) – German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Wednesday that the country might withdraw its troops from the Incirlik airbase in Turkey because of denied access for German lawmakers to the base.
"The Bundeswehr is an army of the parliament. And if the parliament cannot visit its army, the army cannot remain there. That is absolutely clear," Gabriel said, as quoted by the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung.
A delegation of German lawmakers was barred in June from visiting the airbase in southern Turkey, which hosts aircraft from Germany, as well as the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Qatar participating in the US-led coalition against the Daesh terrorist group, outlawed in many countries including Russia.
German-Turkish relations deteriorated after the German parliament’s decision in June to label the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
