Turkey says no decision given on Germany’s İncirlik request

“There is a request issued by Germany on the İncirlik Base. But no decision has been made about this request. The request is there but assessments other than that are nothing but speculations,” Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli told reporters after the cabinet meeting on June 13. 

Relations between the two allies have soured after the German Parliament approved a bill describing the killing of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as genocide.

Canikli’s remarks came after German media reported that the two countries’ defense ministries have agreed in principle about Germany’s request to erect temporary military facilities inside the İncirlik base. Germany currently has around 300 troops and two Tornado aircrafts stationed at the base as part of the international coalition established to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

Turkey has been considering its reaction against Germany in the aftermath of the Bundestag’s recent vote on the Armenian issue, but no announcement has been made yet. President Recep Tayyip Erdopan and other senior Turkish government officials have stressed that the vote would not be left unanswered, though Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said no one should expect a full collapse of bilateral relations between the two allies.