Turkey blocks German lawmakers parliamentarians access to Incirlik air base

Turkey has refused to allow a delegation of German lawmakers to visit Bundeswehr soldiers at the Incirlik air base, officials said on Monday, in a move that puts further strain on already fraught ties between the two countries.

The lawmakers were denied a visit to the base as it was not deemed appropriate at this time, sources in Turkey's foreign ministry told Reuters news agency, without elaborating.

Germany currently has several Tornado surveillance aircraft and a refuelling plane deployed at the base that are assisting an international coalition carrying out aerial attacks on positions of the Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. Some 260 German military personnel are stationed at Incirlik.

A spokesman for the German foreign minister said it was "completely unacceptable" for Turkey to keep German lawmakers from visiting their own soldiers.

"A visit by lawmakers must be made possible," Martin Schaefer said, adding that foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel would raise the issue with colleagues from other NATO governments in Washington on Tuesday.

German government spokesman Stefan Seibert said Berlin would consider alternative places to station the soldiers.

Relations between the NATO allies have deteriorated, with many German lawmakers outraged at what they see as a gross repression of freedoms during Ankara's post-coup crackdown. Dozens of journalists  have been imprisoned - including the German-Turkish Deniz Yucel - and authorities have carried out mass purges and arrests of public officials.

Relations were particularly strained in the run-up to Turkey's 16 April referendum, when Germany banned Turkish politicians from addressing rallies of expatriate Turks, citing public safety concerns.

President Tayyip Erdogan accused Berlin of "Nazi-like" tactics. A narrow majority of Turks backed the referendum to change the constitution and grant Erdogan sweeping executive powers.

Last year Turkey banned German lawmakers from visiting the base for months in response to a resolution in the general parliament declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide, a term Ankara rejects.