Türkiye closes airspace for flights from/to Sulaymaniyah airport over PKK acts

ANKARA

Türkiye has closed its airspace for the aircraft, which land/take-off at Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah International Airport, as of April 3 upon the intensification of PKK activities in the region, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said.

“Turkish airspace has been closed to aircraft which land/take off at Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah International Airport as of April 3. The decision was taken upon the intensification of PKK terrorist organization’s activities in Sulaymaniyah, infiltration by the terrorist organization into the airport and thus threatening of flight safety,” Bilgiç said in a written statement on April 5.

The decision will initially be valid until July 3, 2023, and will be re-evaluated in light of the developments that will be closely monitored in the run-up to that date, said the spokesperson.

The ban comes after a helicopter carrying PKK terrorists recently crashed in northern Iraq last month. The aircraft was purchased by a group within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) political party, the Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government’s (KRG) Masrour Barzani said.

“Actually, the helicopter was purchased by a group within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [PUK], but we don’t know how it got into the hands of the SDF [the Syrian Democratic Forces],” he said.