Turkey extends suspension of flights with Sulaimani International Airport
Earlier on December 23, 2023, the Turkish government had extended the suspension of flights with Sulaimani International Airport until June 22, 2024.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Turkish government has extended the suspension of flights with Sulaymaniyah International Airport (ISU) for another six months.
The Turkish government has extended the suspension of flights with Sulaymaniyah International Airport (ISU) until December 7, 2024, Director General of Sulaimani International Airport Handren Hiwa told Kurdistan24 on Saturday.
Earlier on December 23, 2023, the Turkish government had extended the suspension of flights with Sulaimani International Airport until June 22, 2024.
Read More: Turkey extends travel ban to Sulaiamani airport for second time
About 176 travel agencies in Sulaimani province that advertised daily flights to Turkey, following the recent suspension of flights between Turkey and Sulaimani International Airport, some of the agencies stopped their advertising.
Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç told the media that the Turkish government had decided to suspend flights due to the infiltration of the PKK into the airport.
The ban includes Turkish airspace closure to all flights from and to the ISU.
It is not the first time Turkey stopped flights to Sulaimani. Ankara grounded flights to Sulaimani for over a year following the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum in Sept. 2017.
The ban at first included both the Erbil and Sulaimani airports, as part of an international travel ban imposed by Baghdad. However, in March 2018, after Baghdad lifted its ban, Turkey agreed to resume flights only to Erbil, and not Sulaimani.
At the time, Turkey claimed that the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Gorran (Change) Movement — the two dominant parties in the province of Sulaimani — had been providing support to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). It lifted its ban in Jan. 2019.
Fighting the PKK since the mid-1980s, Turkey has launched numerous ground and aerial military operations against the Kurdish militants inside the Kurdistan Region, resulting in tens of thousands of causalities.
Bolstered by its advanced drone industry, Ankara has in recent years assassinated several suspected members of the group inside urban centers, including in Sulaimani and Garmiyan areas.
