Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan
©Website of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia /primeminister.am
The Turkish authorities have closed the country’s airspace for flights of Armenian VIPs, including the aircraft of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, to third countries. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke about this in an interview with 24TV.
“Flights were made every day through Turkish airspace. Now we have closed it. They have closed it for VIPs, let them not be offended by us. They have also closed it for Pashinyan’s plane,” the Turkish Foreign Minister said. His words on Friday, May 5, quotes RIA News.
Cavusoglu said that only the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament came to the PABSEC meeting, which took place in Ankara on May 4. The Turkish side hosted the summit, so it was impossible to close the airspace for a member of the organization, the minister said.
On April 29, Türkiye closed its airspace to FlyOne Armenia. Ankara canceled the permission issued to the Armenian air carrier to use Turkish airspace when flying to Europe.
On May 3, the Turkish Foreign Minister confirmed that Ankara closed the airspace for Armenian aircraft flying to third countries. The politician did not rule out the adoption of new measures. The reason was the decision to erect a monument in Yerevan to the participants in Operation Nemesis, whom Cavusoglu called “terrorists” who killed Turkish citizens and diplomats.
There are no diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia. The land border has been closed since 1993 at the initiative of the Turkish side, and the air border was opened in 1995. Difficulties in relations between the two countries are caused, among other things, by Ankara’s support for the Azerbaijani position on the Karabakh issue and Turkey’s sharp reaction to the process of international recognition of the Armenian genocide in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire.
