Turkey denies airspace for transfer of humanitarian cargo to Armenia

Turkey is refusing to provide its airspace for the transfer of humanitarian aid from Los Angeles to Armenia, Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee said in a statement.

“The Qatar Airways flight to Armenia scheduled for October 15 on the Los Angeles-Yerevan route carrying humanitarian aid will not take place. The airline did not give any sound reason. The humanitarian aid collected by the Armenian-American community was supposed to be sent to the civilians affected by the Artsakh-Azerbaijani war. The Qatar Airways informed the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia about the flight cancelation on October 14th. The plane was supposed to pass through the Turkish airspace, but Turkey is obstructing the humanitarian cargo to Armenia”, the statement said.

“The reroute of the flight through other countries, such as the Russian Federation or Georgia will take hours, so the airline must find other ways to transport the humanitarian aid. We have information from reliable sources that Qatar Airways at this state will not be able to transport the cargo. We have grounds to claim that Turkey deliberately closed the air route. This is not the first time that Turkey has obstructed cargo transportation to Armenia. During the pre-war period, the country began to create obstacles, requiring airlines to provide a detailed list of cargo as it passed through its airspace.

Although the provision of airspace is a sovereign right of each country, according to international practice, data are required only for dangerous goods in order to respond properly in an emergency (Chicago Convention, Article 5). This cargo, moreover, has passed the inspection stage”, said Tatevik Revazyan, Head of the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia.

“The Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia appealed to the EUROCONTROL, an organization for the Safety of Air Navigation. These days, several cargo shipments have been made to Armenia from the USA, France and Russia. Cargo transportation is mainly carried out in cooperation with the Civil Aviation Committee and Armenian air carriers. Airlines do this on a non-profit basis”, the statement said.