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Baku Pressure Blamed For Van-Yerevan Flight Cancelation

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  • Baku Pressure Blamed For Van-Yerevan Flight Cancelation

    BAKU PRESSURE BLAMED FOR VAN-YEREVAN FLIGHT CANCELATION

    http://asbarez.com/109149/baku-pressure-blamed-for-van-yerevan-flight-cancelation/
    Monday, April 1st, 2013

    BoraJet is the company operating the Van-Yerevan flights

    ANKARA (Reuters)-Turkey has canceled the first ever scheduled Turkish
    flights to Armenia, days before the first plane was due to take off,
    officials have said, following fierce opposition from Azerbaijan.

    The twice-weekly flights between Turkey's eastern city of Van and
    Yerevan were due to begin on April 3 and, encouraged by a U.S. push
    for rapprochement, were meant to boost bilateral tourism and trade.

    But with just over a week until the first flight, and with tickets
    already on sale, Turkey's civil aviation authority stepped in and
    ordered the flights to be suspended.

    Officials at Turkey's transport ministry confirmed the flights had
    been stopped but declined to give a reason. BoraJet, the private
    Turkish carrier set to fly the 45-minute route, also declined to
    comment on the stoppage.

    One BoraJet official twice denied the Van-Yerevan flights had ever
    been planned, even though the route was still available as a booking
    option on the firm's Web site on Monday.

    Narekavank Tour, a Yerevan-based travel agency which has spent the
    last three years organising the flights together with a Turkish travel
    agency in Van, said the reason was political.

    "The organizers were keen on staying away from politics. It is
    very sad and discouraging that Turkish authorities were not able to
    do the same and finally let politics interfere with this promising
    initiative," it said in a statement.

    Asked if he thought this was due to specific pressure from Azerbaijan,
    Armen Hovhannisyan, co-founder of Narekavank Tour, said: "Of course,
    it's part of the whole formula, and maybe they have been working
    behind the scenes."

    Azerbaijan has voiced fierce opposition to the flights and last week
    Ali Hasanov, a senior official at the president's office in Baku,
    said they amounted to support for "the occupant country" and only
    prolonged the "occupation".

    "When such things are done by countries, which share the same
    strategic interests with Azerbaijan, we take it twice as fervently.

    It's not just our attitude, but an attitude of the whole Turkish
    society," Hasanov told Reuters.

    A Turkish foreign ministry official said he was aware the flights
    had been canceled but did not know the reason.

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