(MENAFN- Saudi Press Agency)
Berlin, Shawwal 20, 1438, Jul 14, 2017, SPA -- Ankara has ruled out a visit by German lawmakers to a NATO military base in Konya in south-western Turkey amid tensions
between the two nations, Berlin officials said.
The German Foreign Ministry told top-ranking members of the parliamentary defence committee on Friday that Turkey had asked for Monday's planned trip to be postponed because of the state of relations between Berlin and Ankara, committee chairman Wolfgang Hellmich told dpa.
Berlin said early this month that Ankara had approved seven Bundestag members visiting the Konya base, where between 20 and 30 German soldiers are normally stationed as part of the international fight against the militant IS.
This followed Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu saying in June: "As of now, it is possible to visit the NATO base in Konya, (but) not Incirlik." Hellmich said Turkey's decision to cancel the visit was conveyed to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin on Thursday evening.
But Hellmich went on to insist that the Bundestag members have a right to visit soldiers in service, independent of how Turkey currently views relations with Berlin.
"Under these conditions, I see no way to extend the mandate," said Hellmich. The parliamentarians' visit was aimed at assessing Germany's participation in reconnaissance flights over Syria.
The cancellation of the Konya visit is the second time this year that Turkey has refused to allow a German parliamentary delegation to visit a military base in the nation.
A months-long row over access to the Incirlik airbase - where some 260 German soldiers were stationed - ended last month with Germany announcing that it was pulling out its troops and equipment and moving to Jordan.
Relations between Germany and Turkey have deteriorated since the Bundestag voted last year to describe the mass killing of Armenians at the hands of the Ottomans as genocide. Turkey is the Ottoman Empire's successor state and disputes the designation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's efforts earlier this year to lobby Germany's Turkish expatriate population to back extending his powers in a controversial referendum added to the tensions between the two countries.
This was followed by the German authorities refusing to allow Erdogan to speak to supporters at a rally during this month's Group of 20 summit of major economies in Hamburg.
-- SPA
20:14 LOCAL TIME 17:14 GMT
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