Turkey- MHP: Merkel using visa liberalization as 'carrot' for ncirlik
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Turkey’s primary nationalist opposition party leader has suggested thatGermanChancellorAngela Merkelhas been using an EU visa liberalization process with Turkey as a “carrot” to deploy her country’s forces at Turkey’s ncirlik Air Base.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli recalled remarks by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuolu delivered last week when he said Turkey and the United States had agreed on a new military action to push extremist jihadists away from the Turkish border by deploying U.S. missiles with a 90-kilometer range on the front line and intensifying the aerial campaign.
“As we respond to the rockets and missiles of ISIL [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] with howitzers while not being able to even fly one of our aircraft the shape of the mentioned support is a mystery” Bahçeli said on May 3.
“In our opinion the reports about granting a base at ncirlik to Germany are another unfavorable … issue. In his way the reason why Merkel has been coming to Turkey frequently has become clear. TheGermanprime minister’s visit to refugee camps is nothing but a cover-up for the real intention” he said addressing the parliamentary group meeting of his party.
“As far as can be seen Merkel has been using monetary resources along with visa exemption as a carrot in order to get settled at ncirlik” he added.
Last weekGermanmagazine Der Spiegel reported that Germany was planning on building a fixed location with a command post aviation area guesthouse and care facility on the ncirlik base where it has already deployed Tornado jets and an aerial refueling jet along with around 200 soldiers. It claimed that the overall cost of the building was around 65 million euros.
Turkish military sources have denied the claims saying theGermangovernment only wanted to construct a “guesthouse” of 400 people for the roughly 200 military staff who came to ncirlik for the reconnaissance Tornado jets at the base.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.