Turkish-German Ties Need Improving, Relations Between Troops Positive - Lawmaker

© AFP 2023 / Tobias Schwarz A technician works on a German Tornado jet at the NATO air base in Incirlik, Turkey. (File)
A technician works on a German Tornado jet at the NATO air base in Incirlik, Turkey. (File) - Sputnik International
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Relations between Germany and Turkey need time to improve, but the professional relations between the servicemen of the two countries are unaffected by the current cooling in the relations, German Left Party (Die Linke) member Alexander Neu told Sputnik Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A group of German lawmakers visited German servicemen deployed at the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey on Wednesday. The delegation was headed by Deputy Chairman of the Defense Committee of the German Parliament Karl Lamers and included Alexander Neu, among others.

"I cannot say that situation here [at the Incirlik Air Base] is tense… the relations [between German and Turkish servicemen] at good professional level. And policy does not seem to play any role here," German lawmaker Alexander Neu told Sputnik.

Neu said that "the most acute phase of the ‘Ice Age’ is over", although time is yet needed for the relations between Germany and Turkey to turn back to normal.

A technician works on a German Tornado jet at the air base in Incirlik, Turkey, on January 21, 2016 - Sputnik International
German Lawmakers to Visit Turkey's Incirlik Airbase on Wednesday
German-Turkish relations deteriorated after the German parliament’s decision in June to label the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Following this decision, Ankara restricted a delegation of German lawmakers' access to the air base.

On August 29, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said German officials would be able to visit the base provided the German government took steps to distance itself from the Bundestag resolution. On September 2, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said that the Bundestag resolution was not legally binding.

The Incirlik Air Base hosts six German Tornado reconnaissance aircraft, as well as jets from the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Qatar participating in the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIL, also known as Daesh) jihadist group, outlawed in many countries.

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