ANKARA, May 3. /TASS/. Turkey has closed its airspace for Armenian flights bound for third destinations, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told broadcaster NTV on Wednesday.
"We have closed our airspace to Armenian flights heading to a third destination," Turkey’s top diplomat said, warning that airlines and private jets will be banned from flying over his country until provocations on the part of Armenia against Turkey and Azerbaijan stop.
Cavusoglu referred to the recent unveiling of a memorial in Yerevan to commemorate the Armenian operation against the leaders and organizers of the genocide early last century that Turkey does not recognize.
While Cavusoglu said that, jointly with Azerbaijan, Turkey would like to bring its relations with Armenia back to normal after the Karabakh War, Ankara finds the opening of the monument, which he said glorified "terrorists who killed our diplomats, citizens and Azerbaijanis," unacceptable.
However, the Turkish foreign minister said, Ankara will allow Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan personally to fly in for a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation to be held in the capital of Turkey on May 4-5. He explained the decision with the international status of the event.
On Saturday night, Flyone Armenia reported that Turkey’s aviation authorities had canceled the permit issued to the airline to operate flights to Europe through Turkish airspace without any prior notice. The Armenian air carrier was forced to land its flight destined to Yerevan from Paris in Chisinau Airport. Flyone Armenia’s chairman, Aram Ananyan, confirmed this information to a TASS reporter.