Turkish President Erdogan to visit Germany in July
Ahead of parliamentary elections in September, Merkel's coalition partner the Social Democratic Party (SPD) took a surprise decision and demanded withdrawing German soldiers from Incirlik, in protest to Turkey's stance.
Since 2015, Germany has stationed six Tornado surveillance jets and a tanker aircraft at Incirlik, along with around 260 personnel, providing intelligence and logistics support for anti-Daesh operations.