Turkish authorities block landmark Yerevan-Van flight

YEREVAN, March 29. / ARKA /. Narekavank,  an Armenian travel agency that had worked a lot to prepare launch of landmark direct flights from Yerevan to the southeastern Turkish city of Van, which were to start on April 3, said today Turkish Civil Aviation Chief Directorate  decided to block  the flights.

Narekavank said in a statement that it hopes that Turkish authorities will demonstrate understanding and reverse their decision. 

Regular flights from Yerevan to Van, which was one of  medieval capital cities of  Armenia,  were to be operated  twice a week - on Wednesdays and Sundays. BoraJet, a private Turkish airline, was  contracted to fly between Yerevan and Van. Located on the eastern shore of an eponymous lake, Van  has  an estimated 500,000 mainly Kurdish residents. The city and surrounding areas had a sizable Armenian population until the World War One-era mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

"The main purpose of the flights was to boost tourism and cultural ties between the peoples of the region, as well as promote economic and business cooperation," Narekavank said.

Turkish-Armenian commercial flights have until now been carried out only between Yerevan and Istanbul.

Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic relations. The official Ankara closed the border with Armenia in 1993. The uneasy relationship between the countries is caused particularly by Ankara’s support to Azerbaijan on Karabakh problem and Turkey’s overreaction to international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Empire.  -0-