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| Europe | |
| Turkish officials deny airspace closed to Iraq | |
| 2007-11-03 | |
| Top Turkish officials on Thursday denied media reports that Turkey had closed its airspace as part of economic sanctions against northern Iraq, saying flights were running as usual. "We have not received any order to cancel flights, neither to the north nor to the south of Iraq," a top Turkish civil aviation official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press. CNN-Türk later quoted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying "there is no decision to shut down Turkish airspace," without further elaboration. Turkey's NTV television reported that the airspace had been closed, but then later revised its report to say that civilian flights from Turkey to northern Iraq would be canceled, citing unidentified officials. It did not say when the ban may take effect. Within the past two weeks Turkey has canceled some flights to northern Iraq for "technical reasons" but not as part of a ban, the official said. "They were not fit to fly," he said, adding he was not aware of a pending ban on air traffic.
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| Posted by:lotp |