Germany to withdraw troops from Turkey

Germany will pull two Patriot missile batteries, and 250 troops, from southern Turkey by the start of next year, after a reassessment of the threats from the conflict in neighboring Syria.

Defence minister Ursula von der Leyen announced at the weekend that Berlin would let its three-year Patriot mission lapse in January.

Germany, the US, and the Netherlands all deployed Patriots in early 2013, after Turkey asked its fellow Nato partners for help in protecting its territory, amid an escalating civil war in Syria.

The Dutch ended their mission earlier this year and were replaced by the Spanish.

“The threat in this war-torn region has shifted in focus,” von der Leyen said. “It now stems from the terror organisation, Islamic State”.

The decision follows criticism from some German officials of Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan’s military crackdown on Kurdish militants and his declaration last month that the peace process he initiated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in 2012, was at an end.

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Turkey “can’t allow all the bridges that have been built up over the course of this process to be torn down”.