German Ambassador to Turkey Gets Cold Shoulder After Armenia Genocide Decision

ANKARA — The Turkish government has been giving German ambassador Martin Erdmann the cold shoulder for weeks, after German parliamentarians passed a bill recognizing the Armenian genocide.

Erdmann has not been able to book a meeting or received by officials at the Foreign Ministry or other government departments since June 2, when the Bundestag passed the genocide resolution.

German diplomats beneath the ambassadorial level have still been able to occasionally book meetings, though Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu must personally give the go-ahead for every single one.

The Armenian resolution has led to hard feelings between Germany and Turkey, with the latter bristling over the use of the term genocide.

Since the vote, the Turkish government has also refused a senior civil servant in the defence ministry permission to visit German military personnel at Incirlik air base, where they are part of the coalition against Isis.

Relations between Berlin and Ankara are extremely sensitive at the current time. A crude poem written by a German comedian, deliberately insulting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, led to demands from Ankara that the German government take action.

Germany is bound to Ankara by a controversial deal on refugees whereby Turkey has agreed to take back asylum seekers who travel over the Aegean into the EU.