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ANKARA: Turkey lets Armenian plane continue journey to Syria

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  • ANKARA: Turkey lets Armenian plane continue journey to Syria

    Hurriyet, Turkey
    Oct 15 2012


    Turkey lets Armenian plane continue journey to Syria: Deputy PM

    ERZURUM


    Turkey has given the all clear for an Armenian plane to continue on
    its journey to the Syrian city of Aleppo after ordering it to land in
    eastern Turkey so its cargo of humanitarian aid could be searched,
    Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinç said.

    Armenian authorities agreed to the grounding of an Aleppo-bound plane
    in the eastern province of Erzurum as part of a previous agreement
    between Turkey and Armenia regarding flights to Syria, according to
    officials, daily Hürriyet has reported.

    Armenia notified Turkish authorities of their willingness to send
    humanitarian aid to Syria before agreeing to Turkey's terms that
    called for a routine security check for every plane bound to Syria,
    officials said.

    The plane, which was forced to land earlier this morning, will be
    permitted to depart as soon as the checks are completed.

    Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan reacted to the
    grounding as well, saying "nothing extraordinary" was taking place at
    the airport.

    "The stopover in Turkey of Armenian plane carrying humanitarian aid to
    Syria was planned. Nothing extraordinary," Balayan tweeted following
    the incident.

    The plane is carrying humanitarian aid, including food and clothes,
    sent from Armenia to the Syrian Armenians for a charity campaign, a
    source familiar with the situation said.

    Director of Air Armenia Arsen Avetisyan told News.am that Turkish
    authorities, with the help of the Turkish media, tried to "make a show
    out of it" despite the previous agreement.

    "The [Armenian] plane was carrying 14 tones food," AKP Vice Chairman
    Ömer Çelik wrote on his Twitter account. "Our request for grounding
    was an international standart for unscheduled cargo planes."

    October/15/2012

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