German lawmakers worries over NATO plane deployment
A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO force of
reconnaissance planes that includes German personnel will be sent to help
Turkey police its border, drawing ire from politicians in Germany who said on
Sunday they were not consulted.
"The government must immediately inform parliament of
the details of this deployment, in particular what missions will be assigned to
these planes and the destination of any data they collect," Tobias
Lindner, the green party's head of defence matters, demanded in German daily
Bild, reports AFP.
Though the mission involves sending German troops abroad,
the government said it has no plans to consult the Bundestag, Germany's lower
house of parliament.
The defence ministry noted the deployment was aimed at
carrying out airspace surveillance and not armed operations.
NATO plans a temporary transfer of AWAC aircraft from the
west German base in Geilenkirchen to the Konya base in central Turkey,
Germany's defence ministry wrote in a December 18 letter revealed Sunday.
Germany contributes about 30 percent of the NATO personnel
serving on the 17 Boeing E-3A Sentry AWAC planes in Geilenkirchen, according to
the letter.
It was not immediately clear how many planes were to be sent
to help Ankara "ensure Turkish security" in view of conflicts in
neighbouring Syria and Iraq.
Tensions have been high since Ankara shot down a Russian
warplane that NATO member Turkey says strayed into its airspace and ignored
repeated warnings.
Sahra Wagenknecht, vice president of radical left party Die
Linke, called the mission "highly dangerous" and demanded a vote in
the Bundestag.
The head of the Bundestag's defence committee, Social
Democrat Wolfgang Hellmich, said the timing of the news was "a bit
curious" given that lawmakers were away for the holidays and have not yet
taken up the matter.
The lower house was consulted in early December on German
plans to contribute up to 1,200 of its soldiers to international operations
battling Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
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