Syrian government official denies opening airspace to Turkish planes
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – Director of the General Organization of Syrian Civil Aviation, Bassem Mansour, denied on Tuesday the circulated news about opening Syrian airspace to Turkish civil planes.
“No request was received from the Turkish side for using the Syrian airspace by Turkey’s civil aviation,” Mansour said in a statement to the state-run SANA news agency, adding that all “rumors” circulated on some social media pages are unfounded.
Some people on social media circulated an image, posted by “flightradar24” website, showing a Turkish flight, bearing the number 144, heading from Istanbul Airport to Riyadh Airport in Saudi Arabia over Syrian airspace. They noted that this marks the beginning of a Syrian-Turkish rapprochement.
On October 13, 2012, Damascus closed its airspace to Turkish planes, following an incident in which Turkey intercepted a Syrian plane and forced it to land in its territory, claiming it was “loaded with weapons and ammunition coming from Russia.”