Turkey’s airspace closure to Russia relates to escalation in Syria
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) –Turkey’s closure of its airspace to the Russian planes heading to Syria was to ease the escalation in both northwestern Syria and Ukraine, Nasser al-Youssef, a Syrian political analyst, said on Monday.
“We closed the airspace to Russia’s military planes – and even civilian ones – flying to Syria,” Turkish media quoted its country’s Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, as saying on Saturday.
“Turkey’s closure of its airspace to Russian planes comes after Russia’s escalation in northwestern Syria for a while,” al-Youssef told North Press.
The Moscow-based political analyst noted, “Russians realized that Turks would not extend the signed agreement that allows Russia to cross Turkish airspace, which will expire this month.”
“Unfortunately, Syrian blood has become a mailbox in which each party puts the messages it wants to deliver to the other party,” al-Youssef said.
“Turkey’s closure of its airspace to Russian aircraft comes at a time when relations between Turkey and US are improving,” Moscow-based Mahmoud Hamza, a Syrian political analyst, said.
“There may be some Turkish-American arrangements in northern Syria, which may not be in Russia’s interest or agenda,” Hamza added.
“There are leaks expecting that Turkey, under the auspices of the US, would establish a buffer zone in northern Syria by expelling the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from the Turkish border, which it has requested for years,” he said.
Thus, if “the US meets Turkey’s demands or helps it achieve some of them, it will push Turkey to take other positions against Russia, such as closing the airspace,” according to Hamza.
However, “despite that, relations between Turkey and Russia are strong and will not be broken easily,” the political analyst concluded.