Turkey closed its airspace to Russian planes carrying troops to Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has announced the closure of his country's airspace to Russian military or civilian aircraft transporting soldiers from Russia to Syria after consultations with Moscow.

The measure constitutes one of the first strong responses to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a country with which Ankara had so far maintained a close attitude, despite being a member country NATO Turkey, a member of NATO. In fact, he has positioned himself as a mediator since the beginning of the Russian invasion, on February 24.

“We have closed our airspace not only to Russian military flights but also to civilian flights going to Syria,” the minister told the press as he began his seven-day trip to Latin America, according to Turkish channel NTV.” There was permission until April. Our president (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) told (his Russian counterpart, Vladimir) Putin. Then the flights stopped,” explained the head of Turkish diplomacy.

At the same time, Çavusoglu stressed that Turkey does not participate in the sanctions against Russia that the European Union has imposed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.” If a (Russian) company wants to come to do business, it just has to act in accordance with our laws and international legislation,” said the minister.Çavusoglu stressed that Russia and Ukraine are still talking to achieve peace, but these are “delicate negotiations that take place through diplomatic backdoors,” he said.

Russia has been one of the main allies of the Syrian regime since the start of the civil war in that country in 2011. Some experts believe that the Turkish measure may complicate the routing of Russian military aid to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Cavusoglu also reported that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymir Zelensky have agreed that if there is finally a meeting between the two, it will be in Turkey. The head of Turkish Diplomacy stressed that Moscow and Kiev are working on “a joint declaration”, although he has not given any further details about it.

The Turkish minister arrived this Saturday in Montevideo, where he met with his Uruguayan counterpart, Francisco Bustillo.It is the first stop of a Latin American tour that will take Çavusoglu today to Sao Paulo, Brazil, tomorrow to Brasilia, Monday to Ecuador, Tuesday to Colombia, Wednesday to Panama and on Thursday to Venezuela, from where he will return on Friday to Turkey.

With information from AFP, EFE and Europa Press

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