The ban will remain in place for three months, according to a comment from the Turkish Foreign Minister
Turkey has closed its airspace to Russian civilian and military planes flying to Syria. This was announced by the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu, AFP reported, quoted by BGNES.
This is Turkey’s largest “response” to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ankara otherwise has close ties with Moscow, despite being a member of NATO.
“We have closed the airspace to Russian military planes – and even civilians – flying to Syria. The measure was imposed in March and postponed until April,” Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by Turkish media.
He announced the decision of the Turkish authorities to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to hand it over to President Vladimir Putin.
“One or two days later, Russia responded by saying that Putin had issued an order and that Russian planes would no longer fly over Turkish airspace,” the diplomat told Turkish reporters aboard his plane for Uruguay.
The ban will remain in force for three months.
Russia has not commented on Turkey’s move. Russia, along with Iran, was a staunch supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during Syria’s civil war. Turkey backed Syrian rebels during the conflict. Ankara’s relations with Moscow briefly deteriorated after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015.
Turkey is currently trying to mediate a ceasefire in Ukraine. Ankara is now trying to hold a summit in Istanbul between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Cavusoglu acknowledged that the prospects for such talks remain unclear at the moment.
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