Turkey: Germany can visit Incirlik if it backs away from Genocide vote

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish permission for German lawmakers to visit the Incirlik air base will depend on the German government distancing itself from a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide of 1915, Turkey's foreign minister said on Monday, August 30, according to Reuters.

Turkey, angered by a resolution passed by the German parliament in June that described the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as a "genocide", has denied German lawmakers access to the base near the Syrian frontier.

Six German surveillance jets and a refueling tanker are using it to support the U.S.-led coalition's strikes on Islamic State. Some German lawmakers have threatened to end the mission unless Ankara allows them to visit.

"It depends on the steps taken by Germany. If they take the necessary steps we will enable this visit," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara, when asked about allowing the German lawmakers access to the base.

"But unfortunately I have to say that those that mingle and manipulate our history in an unfair manner cannot be allowed on this visit," he said, in reference to the Armenian resolution.

Foreign ministry officials said "necessary steps" meant the German government distancing itself from the parliamentary resolution and making clear it did not support it.

The German foreign ministry declined comment on Ankara's latest statement. It said spokesman Martin Schaefer had addressed the issue on Friday when he was asked whether the German government could distance itself from the resolution passed by the parliament.

"A resolution of the German Bundestag is a political declaration of a German constitutional body," Schaefer told reporters. "I believe it is a very good idea ... that constitutional entities only comment on each other's work very carefully, if at all."