Germany to Have Access to Incirlik Base If 'Behaves as Now'

German lawmakers will be granted access to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey if Berlin continues to behave in the same way it does now, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In June, Ankara restricted a delegation of German lawmakers' access to the air base, where Bundeswehr forces involved in the US-led coalition campaign against the Daesh terrorist group are deployed, after the German parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the early 20th century massacre of ethnic-Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Despite the ban, Germany decided to send a delegation to the base in mid-September.

"If Germany continues to behave as it does now, then we will consider [allowing the visit]," Cavusoglu told Die Welt newspaper in an interview, referring to the comments made by the German government's spokesman Steffen Seibert stressing that the Bundestag resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide was not legally binding.

On August 29, Cavusoglu said German officials would be able to visit the base provided the German government took steps to distance itself from the Bundestag resolution.

The Incirlik Air Base hosts six German Tornado reconnaissance jets aircraft, as well as jets from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Kingdom and the United States, which are participating in the US-led coalition against the Daesh, outlawed in many countries including Russia.