Published on: 04/24/2022 – 01:19
Turkey has closed its airspace to Russian planes bound for Syria, Turkish media reported on Saturday (April 23), citing Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. This decision marks a new step in Ankara’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We have closed the airspace for Russian military planes – and also civilian planes – destined for Syria,” said Mevlut Cavusoglu, without giving the reason for the decision. The head of Turkey’s diplomacy said he passed it to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who forwarded it to President Vladimir Putin.
The ban will last for three months, the Turkish minister said, with permits being renewed quarterly. Russia, a key supporter of the Damascus regime since the civil war began in 2011, did not react immediately.
A new step in Ankara’s response to the Russian invasion
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Turkey has banned warships from navigating the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits, passages between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, explains our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer. Some experts had already noted at the time that this decision could complicate the Russian army’s task in Syria, blocking its comings and goings between the Black Sea and the Tartus naval base in Syria, the only supply point for the Russian army and Russian navy in the Mediterranean .
However, this decision was not construed as a sanction against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as it affected all warring factions and was binding on Turkey under an international convention. The announcement of a closure of Turkish airspace specifically for Russian planes to Syria therefore marks a new stage. In Syria, Turkey has for years supported the armed opposition to the regime in Damascus, whose main ally is Russia.
Turkish mediation
As a NATO member and Ukraine’s ally, Turkey has been trying to facilitate mediation between Moscow and Kyiv since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. So far she has refused join western sanctions against Russia, keen to maintain an open line with the Kremlin. Turkey has therefore twice hosted direct negotiations between the two parties, on March 10 at ministerial level in Antalya (South) and on March 29 in Istanbul.
that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come closer Moscow in recent years after a series of disappointments and tensions with Westerners.
The two countries even managed to pull out of the crisis that hit them after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in 2015.
(With AFP)