Turkey has closed its airspace to military and civilian planes carrying troops from Russia to Syria after consultations with Moscow, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by the DPA. He made the statement during a flight to Uruguay.
Turkish authorities give Moscow permission to pass through its airspace every three months, and the last such deadline expired this month, Cavusoglu said. Ankara is a member of NATO and tried to act as a mediator in the Ukrainian conflict and maintain close ties with both Ukraine and Russia, said DPA.
Turkey has been trying to persuade the two presidents, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to hold talks on its territory. According to Cavusoglu, Moscow and Kyiv have agreed to hold a meeting in Turkey if sufficient progress is made in the negotiations. The two countries are working on a draft joint declaration, the foreign minister added, without elaborating. Russian companies can do business in Turkey because Ankara has not joined the sanctions against Moscow, Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by TASS.