Ankara confirms German MPs will visit NATO base in Turkey
Turkey's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said the German lawmakers would visit an air base in Konya on September 8, under the umbrella of NATO.
German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen (C) arrives to visit German soldiers at the air base in Incirlik, Turkey, January 21, 2016.
A delegation of German lawmakers will visit that country's soldiers serving at an air base in Turkey on September 8, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry said the visit would take place within the framework of NATO, of which Turkey and Germany are both members, and that a senior NATO official would accompany the delegation.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said details of the planned visit to the base in Konya, in the central Anatolian region, were still being discussed at NATO.
A row over access to German soldiers at Turkish bases has heightened tensions between the NATO allies and fuelled a wider row.
Ankara's repeated refusals to allow lawmakers to visit German soldiers at Turkey's Incirlik air base prompted Berlin to relocate those troops to Jordan.
Turkey's government was particularly critical of several opposition lawmakers within planned delegations who had publicly announced their support for the PKK, which the EU, Turkey and the US consider a terrorist organisation.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had urged Turkey and Germany to resolve the issue.
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