Turkey extends flight ban to Sulaimani International Airport for additional six months

Jan. 6, 2025

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Turkish authorities have extended their suspension of flights to and from Sulaimani International Airport for an additional six-month period, airport officials confirmed to Kurdistan24 on Monday.

Handren Hiwa, Director of Sulaimani International Airport, revealed that the airport administration received an email notification of Turkey's decision to extend the flight suspension in both directions between Sulaimani and Turkish airports for an additional six months.

The development indicates a continuation of restrictions first implemented on April 3, 2023, when Turkish Airlines suspended its operations at Sulaimani International Airport for an initial three-month period. 

The measure was reinforced on April 5, 2023, when Tanju Bilgiç, spokesperson for Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced the closure of Turkish airspace to aircraft using Sulaimani International Airport for arrivals and departures.

Ankara initially imposed the ban in April this year for three months, alleging the airport has become a “hub” for its staunch foe, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Sulaimani officials vehemently reject the claim, insisting the airport is a “civilian” one. 

The ban includes Turkish airspace closure to all flights from and to the SIA.

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). 

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.