Germany may vote to move troops out of Turkey as row with Ankara deepens

Germany's foreign minister on Wednesday said parliament would likely vote on withdrawing troops involved in the fight against Islamic State in Syria from a Turkish military base if Ankara persisted in denying German lawmakers access to the site.

Turkish officials have told Reuters a visit by German lawmakers to some 250 German troops stationed at Incirlik to provide logistical support to the US-led coalition would not be appropriate at the moment.

The deepening row has further soured relations that became increasingly strained ahead of a constitutional referendum in Turkey that handed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers.

"I can only hope that the Turkish government changes its mind in the coming days. Otherwise, the German parliament will certainly not leave the soldiers in Turkey," Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.

Gabriel's comments struck a tough tone after Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said that Berlin might move the troops elsewhere.

Spiegel Online has reported that Germany was exploring the possibility of redeploying the soldiers to Jordan. The Berliner Zeitung reported that the opposition Greens and Left parties were calling for a vote on pulling the soldiers out.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply after a series of diplomatic rows.

Turkey was angered by Germany's cancellation of political rallies in support of Erdogan ahead of the Turkish referendum and is furious that Germany is granting asylum to Turks accused of participating in a failed coup last July.

The failed putsch prompted a purge of the Turkish military, judiciary and civil service. German officials have said more than 400 Turkish citizens with diplomatic passports and other government work permits had sought asylum in Germany since then.

The mass-selling daily Bild reported that two Turkish generals had sought asylum at Frankfurt airport late on Tuesday.

It said the two generals would be taken to a migrant centre in Giessen, near Frankfurt, after spending the night near the airport. German police and the Office for Migrants and Refugees declined to comment.

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

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

Germany and other Western allies have voiced concern about what they fear is growing authoritarianism in Turkey.

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