Turkey Bans Cargo Plane from Flying to Armenia Through Its Airspace

Turkey has reportedly banned a cargo plane from flying from Europe to Armenia through Turkish airspace. According to Hetq.am, a Boeing 777F of Ethiopian Airlines, hired by an Armenian cargo company, had to turn away from Turkish airspace at the last minute and return to the Belgian city of Liege on Tuesday. The plane carried various consumer goods purchased by online shoppers in Armenia and neighboring Georgia. Another Ethiopian Airlines jet transported the goods to Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport on Wednesday, taking a longer route through Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.

The Armenian government’s Civil Aviation Committee confirmed on Friday that the Ethiopian-based carrier had prior permission to fly over Turkey. However, the committee could not explain why Turkish aviation authorities revoked this permission without notice.

Hakob Arshakyan, a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament, expressed his disappointment, saying, “It’s not pleasant to hear such news.” He added, “I don’t know whether it was a political decision or there was a technical problem.” Arshakyan hopes that Ankara will remove such hurdles in line with interim normalization agreements reached with Yerevan two years ago.

One of the agreements between Turkey and Armenia called for direct air freight traffic between the two countries. Although the Turkish government formally allowed cargo shipments by air to and from Armenia in January 2023, this agreement has largely remained unimplemented. Ankara maintains a complete ban on imports of Armenian goods.

Turkey had banned all Armenian aircraft from its airspace in September 2020, three weeks before Azerbaijan launched a large scale war against Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), during which Turkey provided decisive military assistance to Azerbaijan. The ban on Armenian overflights remained in place until the start of normalization talks between the two neighboring states and the resumption of Yerevan-Istanbul flights in early 2022. Even after that, Ankara has periodically banned Armenian carriers from flying over Turkey en route to Europe or the Middle East.

Another agreement reached in July 2022 committed Turkey and Armenia to opening their land border for holders of Armenian or Turkish diplomatic passports and citizens of third countries. However, a senior Armenian official complained last month that Ankara has not taken any steps to implement this agreement.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other leaders have repeatedly stated that further progress in the normalization process is dependent on the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord, which is sought by Azerbaijan. They have also demanded that Armenia open an extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhijevan exclave and change its constitution.