Germany to move jets out of Turkey

Berlin, July 18: Germany’s defence minister hopes to start transferring planes serving in the international coalition against the Islamic State group from Turkey to Jordan by mid-July.

The German government decided to withdraw its refuelling and reconnaissance aircraft from Turkey’s Incirlik base after Turkish officials refused to let lawmakers visit the roughly 270 German troops there. They will move to Azraq, Jordan.

Defence minister Ursula von der Leyen told on Sunday’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the refueling plane will be moved as quickly as possible after the end of June and should be back in service in the second half of July.

Ms Von der Leyen says moving the six Tornado reconnaissance planes will take two months, from August to September.

Those planes should be fully back in service from October. Earlier, German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel had said, “My Turkish colleague explained to me that in the current situation, Turkey is not able to allow every visit by German parliamentarians to Incirlik — for domestic reasons.”

He said: “The country places the value on German lawmakers being able to visit Bundeswehr soldiers at any time.”