U.S. ‘Concerned’ With Turkey’s Suspension of Overflights
Ankara said Wednesday that the unveiling of a monument in Yerevan honoring the heroes of the Operation Nemesis was reason Armenia was barred from using Turkey’s airspace for overflights.
Last Saturday, without prior notice, Turkey closed its airspace to FlyOne Armenia airlines, which operates flights from Istanbul to destinations in Europe, include Paris and Chișinău, the capital of Moldova.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced on Wednesday that the closure of the airspace was in response to the “Nemesis” monument, which was unveiled on April 25 to much fanfare in Yerevan.
Cavusoglu threatened further retaliation from Turkey if the monument is not removed.
The Turkish foreign minister said it is unacceptable for Turkey that those who killed Turks and Azerbaijanis in the 1920s are honored in Armenia and a monument is erected in their honor, Haberturk reported.
Cavusoglu did say that an exception would be made for Armenia’s Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan, who is scheduled to travel to Turkey to attend the Black Sea Economic Cooperation summit.
“If Armenia continues in this manner and does not remove the monument, we will take additional steps,” Cavusoglu warned.
The agreement to allow overflights from Turkey stems from talks to normalize relations between Armenia and Turkey, which began last year with both sides pledging that the negotiations would proceed without preconditions. However, since the beginning of the talks, Turkey has insisted on preconditions, most of them relating to the fulfillment of Baku’s agenda in its peace talks with Armenia.
The State Department has expressed its concern regarding Turkey’s decision to suspend the flight permit for the Armenian air carrier.
“The United States strongly supports Armenia-Türkiye [sic] normalization, which would be good for the entire region. We noted with disappointment Türkiye’s announcement that it would suspend Armenian airlines’ overflight permissions. The agreements previously reached between them to resume air connections have been important confidence building measures. It is our sincere hope that Turkey and Armenia can continue to rebuild economic ties and open transportation links,” the State Department said in a statement.
In deference to Ankara, the State Department is using the word “Türkiye” to refer to “Turkey.”
