Turkey bans Israeli military overflights
Turkey has banned overflights by Israeli military jets (there were some early reports on Monday that made it sound like overflights by civilian jets had been banned as well - that is not the case). Turkey has closed its airspace to some Israeli military flights following a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, the Turkish prime minister and officials said Monday. An official said civilian commercial flights were not affected.The picture at the top of this post is an Israeli jet fuel tank that was found in a Turkish field along the Syrian border after Israel (allegedly) destroyed Syria's nuclear reactor in September 2007.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Toronto that Turkey imposed a ban on Israeli flights after the May 31 raid on a Turkish ship that was part of a six-vessel international aid flotilla, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency. The prime minister, who is in Canada to attend a summit of the Group of 20 major industrial and developing nations, did not elaborate.
A Turkish government official said, however, that the ban was for Israeli military flights and that commercial flights were not affected. It was not a blanket ban and each flight request would be assessed case-by-case, the official added. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with government rules that bar officials from speaking to journalists without prior authorization.
The Israeli prime minister's office had no comment on Erdogan's statements.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:35 PM
1 Comments:
It will be a matter of time before Israeli civilian flights are banned too. What are the idiots in Jerusalem waiting for? Turkey is a hostile country and an enemy state. Waiting for the other shoe to drop is not going to change this reality. I guess it would take getting Israel's embassy staff swiftly booted out of Ankara to drive home the lesson.
What could go wrong indeed
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