Turkey shuts airspace to Pashinyan’s plane

Turkey shuts airspace to Pashinyan’s plane

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 Cavusoglu 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, Cavusoglu said on Wednesday, May 3.

The monument commemorates those involved in an assassination plot against Ottoman Turkish officials responsible for masterminding and committing the Armenian Genocide.

Speaking to broadcaster NTV, Cavusoglu said Turkey would take further steps if the monument is not removed.

On April 24, 1915, a large group of Armenian intellectuals was rounded up and assassinated in Constantinople by the Ottoman government. On April 24, 2023, Armenians worldwide will commemorate the 108th anniversary of the Genocide which continued until 1923. Some three dozen countries, hundreds of local government bodies and international organizations have so far recognized the killings of 1.5 million Armenians as Genocide. Turkey denies to this day.

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