Turkey Closes Its Airspace to Flights from an Armenian Airline

On Saturday, Turkey unexpectedly closed its airspace to flights from the Armenian airline "Fly One Armenia." The head of this Armenian airline expressed ignorance about the possible reasons for Turkey's action, stating that the cancellation of flight permissions without prior notice has placed "Fly One Armenia" and its passengers in difficult and unfavorable conditions. "Fly One Armenia," a subsidiary of the Moldovan airline "Fly One," began operations in December 2021. The airline has five Airbus aircraft and operates flights to 14 destinations in eight European and Middle Eastern countries. Ankara has not had diplomatic or commercial relations with Yerevan since the 1990s, although a border crossing between the two countries was opened for the first time in February of this year after 35 years, allowing Armenia to send humanitarian aid to earthquake victims in Turkey. The two countries have disagreements over a range of issues, including the genocide of one and a half million Armenians by the Ottomans in 1915 and the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the predominantly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region. Additionally, leaders from Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan met at a European summit.