Turkey bars Israeli plane from using airspace

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Turkey bars Israeli plane from using airspace​

The News
ANKARA: Turkey barred an Israeli military plane from using its airspace after a deadly raid on Gaza-bound aid ships, a Turkish diplomat said on Monday, without specifying whether there was a blanket ban. “Military planes are required to obtain over flight permission before each flight. One military plane was denied permission immediately after” the May 31 raid which left nine Turks dead, the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, without elaborating.

The diplomat did not specify whether the incident signaled a total ban on Israeli military flights using Turkish airspace.

There were no restrictions on civilian flights, the diplomat added. The Anatolia news agency Monday quoted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying that his country had closed its airspace to Israel after the raid on the aid flotilla.

Erdogan, who was speaking in Toronto after the G20 summit, gave no further details. His remarks followed a report in the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot that an Israeli military plane taking an army delegation to Poland was denied permission to use Turkish airspace. The cargo plane, carrying more than 100 officers on their way to visit Auschwitz, had to follow an alternate route, the report said.

The aid ship raid, in which Israeli commandos shot dead eight Turks and a dual-US-Turkish citizen, delivered a huge blow to Turkey’s already strained ties with the Jewish State.