Syrian plane forced to land at Ankara’s Essenboğa airport

As the conflict between Turkey and Syria keeps rising another incident took place on Monday where a Syrian Air plane was forced to land in Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport, by Turkish warplanes. It was claimed by official authorities that the plane was carrying military communication devices.

An announcement made by Turkish Foreign Ministry said “Turkish jets have accompanied a Syrian civilian plane to Ankara’s Esenboga Airport”. The plane was escorted by two Turkish jets to Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport for security checks on its cargo.

The ministry also announced that all civilian flights in Syrian airspace had been stopped since it was no more safe.

It was also reported by media that the A-320 plane, traveling from Moscow to Damascus  was carrying 37 people including the staff when it was intercepted by Turkish authorities at around 6:30 p.m. and there were 12 big parcels on the plane that held military communication devices.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu revealed that there was solid intelligence suggesting the plane carried illegal cargo in violation of the international civilian aviation rules.

Earlier Turkey had already made several declarations that no military or cargo planes carrying arms to Syria would be allowed to use the Turkish airspace.

Simultaneously a Turkish Airlines plane carrying Turkish pilgrims from the northwestern city of Bursa to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah landed urgently in the southern city of Adana after it had been warned by the ministry not to use the Syrian airspace.

Turkey and Syria which had very good relations (developed by PM Erdoğan together with Assad) until a short while ago only, have been experiencing a high tension since since June, when a Turkish jet was brought down by Syrian fire, killing its two pilots onboard.

Most recently a motion was passed by the Turkish parliament allowing government to authorise cross-border operations in Syria, and to be used if need be.