Turkey has closed its airspace to all Russian aircraft flying to Syria, although it remains open for all other services operated by Russian airlines.
"We closed our airspace to Russia’s military planes - and even civilian ones - flying to Syria. They had until April, and we asked in March," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told media during his trip to Uruguay.
The ban will be in place for three months and will complicate Russia's military operations in Syria, as resupply flights will now have to be routed via the Caucasus, Iran, and Iraq. Bypassing Turkey from the west is not possible as all Russian aircraft remain banned from European Union airspace due to sanctions imposed as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.
Çavuşoğlu underlined that Turkey would not join other sanctions against Russia, such as a general airspace closure or individual sanctions on oligarchs. As all Western markets are closed to Russian airlines and tourists, Turkey has emerged as both a key destination and an important connecting hub for the sanctioned country. The ch-aviation capacities module shows that there are currently 355 weekly scheduled flights from Russia to Turkey - 106 of them operated by Turkish Airlines.
Ankara is positioning itself as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia, and has hosted meetings between the countries' diplomatic envoys. Turkey is the only member of NATO which has avoided imposing sanctions on Russia.
