ARMENIA’S ACCESS TO TURKISH AIRSPACE RESTRICTED
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 15 2007
Turkey has banned Armenian civilian aircraft from flying over its
territory en route to Syria and Lebanon, government officials in
Yerevan said on Thursday.
They told RFE/RL that 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, which carries out regular flights from Yerevan to
Beirut and Aleppo. The letters were sent after an Armavia plane bound
for the Lebanese capital was denied access to Turkish airspace and
had return to Yerevan Tuesday.
"Turkish aviation authorities have officially notified us that there
are problems relating to the Yerevan-Aleppo and Yerevan-Beirut flights
and that those flights will not be serviced by them temporarily and
will have to rerouted," said Gayane Davtian, a spokeswoman for the
department.
Both Davtian 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. An Astrom representative
in Yerevan said its next flight scheduled for Saturday will go ahead
as planned.
"Through diplomatic channels we yesterday asked the Turkish authorities
to clarify the situation," Vladimir Karapetian, a spokesman for the
Armenian Foreign Ministry, told RFE/RL. "We have not yet received
a reply."
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. Some Turkish officials and politicians warned recently that
Ankara could scrap the over-flying rights if the U.S. Congress passes
a resolution recognizing the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire as genocide.
Davtian said Turkey has so far placed on restrictions on weekly flights
Yerevan and Istanbul as well as Armenian and other aircraft flying
to and from Europe via Turkish territory. She also said that Turkish
planes continue to use Armenia’s airspace for carrying out flights to
third countries. "Armenia’s airspace remains open to all countries,"
added the official.