Turkey Unjustifiably Bans Armenian Aircraft from Its Airspace, Armenia Has Not Imposed Mirror Ban

Turkey has been prohibiting Armenian-registered aircraft from entering its airspace since September 2020, doing so without justification. It is noteworthy that all civil aircraft registered in our country carry the national mark established by ICAO, which is EK. Non-military government aircraft display the words "Armenia" or "Republic of Armenia" on them.

As of August 2, Armenia has 19 registered civil aircraft and one state aircraft, which is a government plane. The oversight body for civil and non-military aviation in Armenia is the Civil Aviation Committee. We had sent inquiries to this body to clarify what restrictions were imposed by the conflicting parties on each other's airspaces during and after the 44-day war in 2020, Hetq.am reports.

The committee informed us that no aeronautical information (NOTAM) has been published by Turkey regarding the prohibition of entry into its airspace for Armenian-registered (EK) aircraft. However, since September 9, 2020, flights of Armenian-registered aircraft through the airspace of our western neighbor have been banned without explanation, even before the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance unleashed war against Artsakh and Armenia. In other words, since September 9, Turkey has blockaded Armenia not only by land but also from the air, demonstrating its apparent hostility towards Armenia, yet has not officially notified about this ban.

The practical application of this undeclared ban became known after Turkey rejected inquiries from Armenian aircraft operators regarding flights through its airspace. The first refusal was on September 9, followed by subsequent refusals on September 18, September 25, and March 19 and 23, 2021.

The Civil Aviation Committee points out that according to internationally accepted procedures, information regarding airspace bans or restrictions is published through the aeronautical information package of the respective country (in this case, Turkey), but, as mentioned, Turkey has not published such information (NOTAM). This means that there is no ban on paper, yet it is enforced in practice.

According to the CAK, the last time Turkey allowed a flight of Armenian civil aircraft through its airspace was on August 29, 2020, after which all inquiries were rejected. As for Armenia's only state aircraft, Turkey denied a transit technical flight for this aircraft on July 24 of last year, and since then, flights of the Armenian state aircraft have not been planned through Turkish airspace. This means that since the summer of 2020, the Armenian government plane has been bypassing Turkish airspace when traveling to other countries.

However, we must note that on February 20 of this year, a "Fly Armenia Airways" Boeing 737-300 aircraft (registration EK-FAA) flew from Bulgaria's Varna to Iran's capital Tehran via Turkish territory. This means there was a practical transit flight through Turkey; the question remains how this occurred and how Turkey allowed the flight. It should be recalled that this involves an aircraft that had the right to fly from Estonia's capital Tallinn to Ukraine's Gostomel, which unlawfully flew from Tallinn to Varna on February 19 and then similarly appeared in Iran the next day. Officials at "Fly Armenia Airways" are also surprised by this.

Incidentally, the use of any country's airspace is charged (aircraft navigation service fees based on kilometers flown); in other words, the greater the flow of aircraft in a given state’s skies, the more that state profits.

We asked the CAK whether, in response to Turkey's ban, the Armenian side has imposed a mirror ban on aircraft registered with the Turkish national mark (TC) entering our airspace, and if not, why? The committee responded that it has not imposed any restrictions, guided by the provisions of paragraph b) of Article 9 of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, which states that each ICAO member state cannot apply a discriminatory approach to the use of its airspace.

It is also known that Armenian and Azerbaijani (4K) registered aircraft do not enter each other's airspace, but the CAK notes that no such bans have been established by either aviation authority regarding the use of their airspace. The committee remarked that the authority to choose airways belongs to the aircraft operators. In other words, the airlines determine the flight routes for each flight. According to the CAK, Azerbaijani-registered aircraft have not entered Armenian airspace since 2014, while Armenian aircraft do not use Azerbaijani airspace due to lack of demand for flights in that direction (eastward).