Ankara, TNA

Turkish authorities permitted Armavia Armenian national carrier to resume flights to Beirut and Aleppo, however, the company was obliged to notify Ankara about flights through Turkish airspace a week beforehand, the panarmenian.net reported.

“The Armenian Foreign Ministry mediated for permission to resume flights,” the site claimed.

Turkish aviation authorities on mid-November cited technical reasons and closed airspace for Yerevan-Beirut and Yerevan-Aleppo flights operated by Armenia’s biggest air carrier, Armavia, but Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan and the flights to Europe continued.

Turkish aviation authorities have cited unspecified “technical reasons” for the ban in separate letters to the Armenian government’s Civil Aviation Department and the Armavia national airline. At the time, according to Armenian dailies, both Civil Aviation Department and Armavia officials said the Turkish side did not elaborate on reasons for the restriction that does not seem to apply to the Syrian airline Astrom that operates weekly flights services from Aleppo and Damascus to the Armenian capital.

Analysts commneted that the airspace ban is an effort show Ankara’s probable steps in case of continuation in stimulation of the Genocide issue by Yerevan.

Armenian Civil Aviation General Department informed that “Armavia” realized the flights by the air of other countries.

Turkey has kept its airspace open to passenger jets flying to and from Armenia for the past several years while refusing to reopen the Turkish-Armenian land border and establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan.

Source: www.thenewanatolian.com/tna-29714.html

Filed under: Turkish Press