Turkish Ultimatum to Germany over the Armenian Genocide Resolution - a Threat to the Fight against Islamic State

• 09.02.2016, 15:23
•  Europe,  Region,  World

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Passions around the German Parliament resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide are not calming down in Turkey, as a result of which new tensions in Turkish-German relations are coming forth.

Just two weeks after the adoption of the Armenian Genocide Resolution Turkey banned a senior official of the German Defense Ministry and several members of parliament to visit Incirlik military base in July, announcing that it is "inappropriate" for politicians to visit the base; ''Ankara approves visits to the Incirlik base located in Turkey's south by military and specialized delegation. But it is inappropriate for non-military delegations and politicians to visit the Incirlik air base," Cavusoglu said.

If only a few months ago the visit of German experts was blocked because of being considered "inappropriate", shortly after, Turkish authorities have begun to issue ultimatum to Germany on Armenian Genocide resolution; German lawmakers will be permitted to visit the Incirlik air base, if the German government distances itself from the resolution of recognizing the Armenian Genocide and announces that it will not have any legal consequences.

However, it should be noted that this time Turkish blackmail policy immediately met a strong resistance. German government not seeing a direct connection between these two conditions, in its turn, threatened Turkey that Bundeswehr will refuse to further participate in the fight against the IS, if official Ankara continues to prevent the visit of MPs to Incirlik.

Moreover, the German Foreign Minister also drew attention to the fact that if Turkey wants the Federal parliament to prolong the term of service of German soldiers in Incirlik, then Germany should have the chance to see its soldiers. Otherwise, German parliament deputies will not approve the extension of the document, which expires in December, 2016.

It should be noted that as all of Germany's military missions need parliamentary approval, the Bundestag regularly sends members of its defense committee to visit field operations. "The German army is a parliamentary army. We decide whether the Bundestag grants a mandate or not, and so of course it's important that we make the decision based on our own observations - there is no alternative,’’ representative of the Social Democratic Party Rainer Arnold told DW.

During these visits parliament members examine the installations, talk to soldiers, check working conditions and observe the military cooperation with allies, after which submit concerns of soldiers to the relevant bodies. Therefore, the Bundestag cannot extend any military mandate, if it doesn’t have the opportunity to visit its soldiers.

Earlier, a spokesman of Federal Ministry of Defence announced that Germany still wants to continue the fight against Islamic State from Incirlik military base in Turkey, but alternative potential bases has been identified in the region.

As Reuters reports, German armed forces are studying whether they could move the Tornado reconnaissance planes, a refuelling plane and 250 soldier to Jordan or Cyprus, as a result of which the fight against Islamic State would be interrupted for at least two months…