YEREVAN (PanARMENIAN.Net) — Turkey has closed its airspace for flights of Armenian VIPs, including those of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, to third countries, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavusoglu has said in an interview with 24TV.
“Flights were made every day through the airspace of Turkey. Now we have closed it. We have closed it for VIPs too, let them not be offended by us. We have also closed it for Pashinyan’s plane. Only the speaker of the Armenian parliament came to the PABSEC meeting (in Ankara. – ed.). We hosted the summit, so it was impossible to close [the airspace] for a member of the organization,” the diplomat said.
At the end of April, Ankara canceled the permission issued to the Armenian airline FlyOne Armenia to use Turkish airspace when flying to Europe.
Turkey closed its airspace to Armenian flights heading to a third destination in response to the unveiling of a monument in Yerevan last week dedicated to Operation Nemesis, whose members avenged the deaths of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, Çavusoglu said on Wednesday, May 3.
Speaking to broadcaster NTV, Çavusoglu said Turkey would take further steps if the monument is not removed.
