A Flyone Armenia plane operating a flight from Paris to Yerevan had to land in Chisinau, Moldova, on April 29 after Turkey’s aviation authorities banned it from entering the country’s airspace. Flyone Armenia, which has been flying into and over Turkey since last year, said it had not been informed about the ban in advance.
Speaking on NTV Channel, Cavusoglu said: “If necessary, we will allow planes into our country, but we will not allow airplanes and private planes to fly through our airspace while the provocations [of Armenia against Turkey and Azerbaijan] continue. If they do not stop doing this, we will also take other steps.”
The top Turkish diplomat, in particular, referred to the recent erection of a monument in Yerevan to participants in Operation Nemesis, a 1920s program of assassinations of Ottoman perpetrators of the 1915 Armenian genocide and Azerbaijani figures responsible for 1918 massacres of Armenians in Baku.
While Operation Nemesis participants are widely regarded by Armenians as “avengers”, Turkey and Azerbaijan view them as terrorists.
In statements following the unveiling of the monument in the center in Yerevan on April 25, one day after Armenians in Armenia and around the world marked the 108th anniversary of the Ottoman-era Genocide vehemently denied by Turkey, the Turkish and Azerbaijani foreign ministries condemned the event that was also attended by Yerevan’s deputy mayor.
Ankara also warned that the “shameful monument” in Yerevan only damages the normalization process that Turkey and Armenia embarked upon in early 2022.
“Turkey is sincere in its desire to normalize relations with Armenia, but the installation of the Nemesis monument in Armenia is unacceptable,” Cavusoglu said.
“I can’t accept it. Armenia’s statements on this issue are also insincere. We closed the airspace as an adequate response. If necessary, we can also take other steps,” he added, urging Armenia to “stop attempts to deceive Turkey.”
The Turkish minister’s remarks came as Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian was heading to Turkey to attend a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. Cavusoglu said that the Armenian official was allowed to use Turkish airspace since he was arriving for an international event held in Ankara.
Official Yerevan did not immediately comment on Turkey’s condemnation of the Operation Nemesis monument inauguration in the Armenian capital and its ban on overflights for Armenian airlines.
In remarks in parliament on Wednesday Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian acknowledged that the closure of Turkish airspace for Armenian planes was a problem. “But whose problem is it? It is our problem. Those who block our roads have no problems at all,” he said.
Pashinian said that when the issue of opening the monument was being discussed in 2020-2021, months after the end of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the decision was made to have it erected in order to “avoid being labeled traitors.”
“Being always guided by the logic of doing so as not to be called traitors we actually keep betraying the state and national interests of our country,” he said.