ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2020) Turkey has temporarily prevented the plane carrying Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias from entering into its airspace over Greece's failure to provide the Turkish authorities with its flight plan, Hami Aksoy, the spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday.
The Turkish authorities on Wednesday refused to grant the Greek government's aircraft with Dendias aboard permission to cross the Turkish-Iraqi border to the south of the Iraqi city of Mosul, the Greek ERT1 tv channel reported on Thursday. Ankara was notified in advance of the minister's flight but forced the plane to drop altitude and fly in a circular pattern for 20 minutes before crossing into the Turkish airspace, the channel reported.
"The aircraft in question took off from Iraq without submitting the necessary flight plan. Flight plans are transmitted through the Eurocontrol system. It was also confirmed from this system that the flight plan was not transmitted. When the aircraft carrying Minister Dendias arrived at our airspace, the plan was urgently requested from the Iraqi authorities, and after the plan was received, the flight was carried out safely," Aksoy said in a statement.
Aksoy explained that Greece had requested overflight permission for Dendias' plane but the foreign minister had to switch planes in Iraq due to technical difficulties. The spokesman added that Turkey had informed Greece that "the aircraft in question was allowed to use our airspace with the same flight permit."
The official also said that the claims that Turkey intentionally kept the Greek plane on hold before allowing it to enter its airspace are misleading, adding that "it is not possible for an aircraft to fly without providing a flight plan."
Relations between Greece and Turkey have been historically strained, but they further deteriorated earlier this year when Turkey began exploration drilling in Eastern Mediterranean waters also claimed by Greece and Cyprus.
