© Reuters
– Mevlut Cavusoglu and Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on April 7th.
Turkish airspace is closed to military and civilian planes carrying troops from Russia to Syria after consultations with Moscow, Turkish state operator TRT Haber was quoted as saying by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Saturday.
NATO member Turkey has good relations with both Russia and Ukraine and is trying to mediate the war between them. But Ankara has closed the straits to Russian Bosphorus warships and is now forcing aircraft to bypass Turkey to supply troops to Syria.
“We have closed the airspace to Russian military planes and even to civilian planes going to Syria and carrying troops,” Cavusoglu told reporters on board a plane en route to Uruguay. He said the permit was given for a period of three months until April, after which flights were suspended.
He said talks between Russia and Ukraine are ongoing and the countries are working on a draft joint declaration.
Cavusoglu said that if progress is made in the talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have agreed the meeting could take place in Turkey.
At the same time, at a surprise press conference in the Kiev metro, Zelensky said there would be no talks or meetings if Putin started killing Ukrainians in Maliupol and tried to hold a referendum on a Kherson or other republic in southern Ukraine.
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