German lawmakers’ visit to NATO base, which is located in Turkey's Konya province and houses German military personnel, was not cancelled, but rather postponed to a later date, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Monday.
"Turkey requested that the scheduled visit of the lawmakers from the parliament’s defence committee be postponed. We speak about postponing, not cancelling [the visit]," Seibert said without providing any information on the likely new date for the visit.
Seibert also said that Berlin planned to seek cooperation with Ankara at all levels, including via NATO.
German soldiers contribute to a NATO air surveillance mission at Konya, 250 km (150 miles) south of the Turkish capital Ankara, and its troops stationed at another air base, in İncirlik, have already been moved to Jordan.
Speaking on ARD television on Sunday, Merkel said lawmakers should be allowed to visit Bundeswehr soldiers at the NATO air base in Konya and that more talks were needed to resolve the dispute. But she refused to link the issue of extradition of Turkish asylum seekers with access to Konya in talks with Ankara. She said the two issues were completely unrelated.
"Before we draw conclusions, we should first wait for talks and discuss these things with NATO's help," Merkel said. There could be no negotiations with Ankara about the extradition of Turkish asylum seekers and granting German lawmakers access to the soldiers at Konya air base because both issues were completely unrelated, she added
On Friday, the Spiegel magazine reported that the German Foreign Ministry had informed the lawmakers that their visit to Konya base, initially scheduled for July 17, was banned by Ankara.
Germany's armed forces are under parliamentary control and Berlin says the lawmakers must have access to its soldiers.
NATO URGED TURKET, GERMANY TO SETTLE AIR BASE ROW
NATO said its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had called Sigmar Gabriel and Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Friday to ask them to settle the dispute. "We hope that Germany and Turkey are able to find a mutually acceptable date for a visit," a NATO spokesman said.
In May, Ankara cancelled a German delegation's visit to the İncirlik air base, where Germany has stationed hundreds of its personnel and housed its jets, the day before it was scheduled to begin. In early June, Berlin responded to Ankara’s move by announcing the decision to withdraw its troops from the base.
