ArmInfo.The fact that Turkey is already hindering the activities of peacekeeping missions within the framework of NATO and the UN raises condemnation. On September 2, during a briefing in Yerevan, the press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan stated this, referring to the Spiegel publication that at the end of July 2020, the Turkish authorities did not allow a German military transport aircraft to fly over its territory.
"As you know, the Armenian Defense Ministry did not refute this information from the German publication. The fact that Turkey is already hindering the activities of peacekeeping missions within NATO and the UN is condemned. We have also expressed our position to international partners on this situation through diplomatic channels," Naghdalyan said.
Earlier, the German weekly Spiegel reported that at the end of July 2020, the Turkish authorities did not allow a German military transport plane to fly over its territory. In the magazine's article, the ban of official Ankara on the use of its airspace by German aircraft is called a new scandal, which led to tensions in Turkish-German relations.
According to the information, a military transport plane of the German Air Force, which took off from Cologne, was heading for Yerevan. There, this plane was supposed to pick up the Armenian military and deliver them to Germany, where they were to undergo a training course. However, the Turkish authorities did not allow the use of their airspace and the Airbus 310 of the German Air Force was forced to return to base. According to the newspaper, German military sources suggested that the German Air Force was not allowed to fly over Turkey due to the fact that the destination of this flight was Yerevan. The magazine emphasizes that Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia, and now the relations between Ankara and Berlin are going through hard times after the Bundestag recognized the Armenian Genocide. The weekly Spiegel claims that a military transport aircraft of the German Air Force, after the Turkish authorities banned the use of its airspace, went to Yerevan via Russia on a longer route in mid-August and delivered the Armenian military to Germany.