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Turkey denies airspace to Iraq-bound airline
Turkey has turned down a request by a private German company to use Turkish airspace for flights bound for northern Iraq because it objects to the name of the carrier: Kurdistan Airlines. Diplomatic sources told the Turkish Daily News on Thursday that the Turkish side did not want to grant use of its airspace to an airline that uses the name "Kurdistan," a politically charged reference to land inhabited by millions of Kurds in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. The German government, acting as a mediator between the private German company Hamburg International and Turkey, passed on the request to Turkish authorities who refused the use of Turkey's air corridor for the airlines' flights to northern Iraq. Hamburg International confirmed that Turkish authorities have "temporarily" withdrawn its overflight permits for flights between Germany and Iraq. "Those flights have already been operating on this route twice weekly on average since 2005. All such flights are conducted as charter flights on behalf of the tour operators Everest Travel and Zozik Air," an official for the company told the TDN. The same official added, "For the time being, we have chosen to use the airspace of neighboring countries for this operation." Greek Cyprus is known to be one of the countries through which Hamburg International is routing flights to Iraq. Diplomatic sources told the TDN that after Turkey rejected the request, Hamburg International discontinued cooperation with "Kurdistan Airlines". However, the official from Hamburg International declined to comment on this issue. Turkey has not always opposed private flights to northern Iraq. Previously a private Turkish airline company, Fly Air, wanted to launch flights to the northern Iraqi cities of Arbil and Sulaymaniyah. Turkish officials said at the time there was no obstacle for direct flights to Baghdad or any other Iraqi cities. In this instance, the name Kurdistan Airlines seems to have been the main source of concern for Ankara. Posted by: lotp 2007-10-07 |
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