German MPs say troops must return if Turkey refuses Incirlik visit

Several German lawmakers said on Sunday the country's soldiers working at Turkey's Incirlik airbase should be brought home if Ankara continued to prevent parliamentarians from visiting the station. Turkey, angered by a resolution passed by the German parliament last month that branded the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide, has denied German lawmakers access to the base. Chancellor Angela Merkel said the parliamentarians must be allowed to visit the 250 soldiers at the base who are taking part in NATO operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq but she stopped short of threatening to withdraw the soldiers.