NATO flags had replaced German flags on the AWACS aircrafts in the NATO base in Konya so German MPs could freely visit the soldiers stationed there without permission from Ankara, but the Turkish state disregarded the NATO mission and prevented the German MPs’ visit planned for July.

German politicians started to demand the Merkel government withdraw German soldiers from Konya like they did in Incirlik. To avoid such a withdrawal, NATO stepped in.

On NATO Deputy Secretary General Gottenmoeller’s invitation, Federal Parliament Defense Commission MPs are now able to visit Konya. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel sent a letter to the Parliament and announced that the commission members can visit Konya on September 8.

WILL THE DIE LINKE MP BE THERE?

But it is unclear as of now whether Alexander Neu, the Die Linke MP whose participation was openly disputed by Erdoğan, will be part of the delegation or not. Initial statements on the visit from both SPD and Die Linke have stressed that removing Neu from the delegation will mean kneeling for the Erdoğan regime.

Der Spiegel had announced in July that the German delegation’s visit to German soldiers in Konya was refused by Ankara because “Neu has ties to the PKK”, but Die Linke has since renounced this claim.

Die Linke officials had made the following statement for Alexander Neu: “Alexander Neu has had no close ties with the PKK, not in the past and not today.” German MP Neu is facing these allegations as he “does not consider the PKK a terrorist organization”.

Neu had said the following during an interview with the Deutschlandfunk radio in August when asked about the PKK: “Regarding PKK’s activity in Turkey, it is possible to discuss whether they constitute terrorism or not. One could also talk about state terrorism.”

NEU: ANKARA ALLOWED INCIRLIK VISIT IN 2016

Alexander Neu is the Die Linke spokesperson of the Defense Commission in Germany’s Federal Parliament. Neu had spoken to the Neues Deutschland newspaper and said, “The Foreign Ministry denies allegations that my name was mentioned during the meeting with Ankara.”

The German MP said he was approved for a visit to Incirlik after the Turkish intelligence conducted an inquiry on him in 2016 and added: “We did visit Incirlik like this last year, my name wasn’t an issue then.”

AWACS AIRCRAFTS IN KONYA IN GERMANY’S HANDS

There are 10 to 20 German soldiers stationed in Konya for the AWACS aircrafts. The aircrafts themselves are registered to the NATO base in Geilenkirchen, Germany. There are claims that NATO’s mission to protect the region will be under threat if German soldiers withdraw from Konya, as the AWACS aircrafts are among the most important defense mechanisms of NATO with their range of 400 kilometers in detecting aircrafts in flight.

Turkish officials, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had said “We won’t allow the MPs who approved that decision into our country,” and started preventing German MPs from visiting the Incirlik base after the German Federal Parliament recognized the Armenian massacre of 1915 as a “genocide” in a vote in June 2016.