Merkel Issues Ultimatum to Erdogan Over Access to Airbase
- German leader makes strongest threat to move Incirlik troops
- Warning comes at NATO summit where Trump makes first visit
Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, arrives for a summit of world leaders at NATO headquarters in Brussels on May 25, 2017.
Photographer: Jasper Juinen/BloombergChancellor Angela Merkel gave her strongest signal yet that she’ll pull German troops out of Turkey unless President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lets lawmakers in Berlin visit them, further cracking a show of unity at a NATO summit.
At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting where U.S. President Donald Trump hectored European allies to pay more for defense, Merkel confronted Erdogan about access to the soldiers at the NATO base in Incirlik where Germany stations reconnaissance jets that fly missions over Iraq and Syria. The 28 NATO members were meeting for the first time at the alliance’s new steel-and-glass headquarters on Thursday in Brussels.