Turkish airlines suspend flights to Russia

Turkish airlines Pegasus and Onur Hava Yollar? have temporarily suspended flights to Russia, the Milliyet newspaper reported Jan. 5.

The temporary suspension of the flights is due to a crisis in relations between Moscow and Ankara.

The airlines expect to resume flights to Russia starting from January 13, 2016, according to the report.

Relations between Moscow and Ankara deteriorated greatly after the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber in Turkey’s airspace Nov. 24, 2015. Ankara stated that Su-24 entered its airspace, while Moscow said the plane didn’t violate Turkey’s airspace.

Earlier, Russian Ambassador to Ankara Andrey Karlov said Turkey must meet three conditions for normalization of relations with Russia.

“Turkey must apologize to Russia over the incident involving the downed aircraft,” he said.

He added that the other two conditions are to find and punish the perpetrators of the incident involving the plane and to compensate for the damage to the Russian side.

After the incident, Turkish foreign ministry said Ankara won’t pay a compensation for the downed Russian plane.

/By Trend/