German-Turkey ties crack as Gabriel snubbed in Ankara

Bloomberg

Germany’s foreign minister was set to return from a visit to Turkey on Monday with nothing but increased ill will, after talks failed to resolve disputes that have damaged relations between the NATO allies.
Turkey will continue to block German officials from visiting their country’s troops at Incirlik, Turkey’s main NATO base near the Syrian border, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a press conference in Ankara following his meeting with visiting counterpart Sigmar Gabriel. Cavusoglu also accused Germany of harboring Turkey’s enemies, and said a German reporter was arrested for his involvement in terrorism, not his journalism.
Immediately after the press conference, the Turkish Haberturk newspaper reported that a meeting between Gabriel and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had been called off. Gabriel was due to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later in the day.
The spat is testing Turkey’s relations with its most important trading partner and also deepening cracks in the NATO military alliance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called Turkey’s approach on Incirlik “deplorable,” and said last month that Germany would abandon the base if Turkey continues to block German lawmakers from visiting.
Cavusoglu said German officials could visit troops in Konya, a smaller base in the west of the country, instead.
“The conditions aren’t right to visit Incirlik right now,” he said. “We need to start with Konya.”
Cavusoglu complained about the presence of Kurdish militants and followers of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen in Germany. Turkey considers both armed Kurdish groups and Gulen’s movement to be terrorist organizations. Asked about Deniz Yucel, the German-born reporter for the Die Welt newspaper detained since February, Cavusoglu accused European nations of using journalists for their secret services.