“The agreement that had previously been reached between these two countries to resume air connections had been a very important confidence-building measure not just between these two countries but... for regional stability broadly,” spokesman Vedant Patel said during a press briefing.
“It’s our sincere hope that Turkey and Armenia can continue to rebuild economic ties and open transportation links as well,” he added.
Earlier on Wednesday Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara had closed its airspace for flights operated by Armenian airlines toward third countries because of Armenia’s “provocations.”
He, in particular, cited the recent unveiling in Yerevan of a memorial to early 20th-century Armenian figures regarded as avengers in Armenia but terrorists in Turkey as the reason for the decision.
“If necessary, we will allow planes into our country, but we will not allow airplanes and private planes to fly through our airspace while the provocations [of Armenia against Turkey and Azerbaijan] continue. If they do not stop doing this, we will also take other steps,” Cavusoglu warned, speaking on Turkish television.
The monument to participants in Operation Nemesis, a 1920s program of assassinations of Ottoman perpetrators of the 1915 Armenian genocide and Azerbaijani figures responsible for 1918 massacres of Armenians in Baku was ceremonially inaugurated in central Yerevan on April 25, one day after Armenians in Armenia and around the world marked the 108th anniversary of the Ottoman-era Genocide vehemently denied by Turkey.
The Turkish and Azerbaijani foreign ministries condemned the event in Yerevan that was also attended by the Armenian capital’s deputy mayor.
Ankara also warned that the “shameful monument” in Yerevan only damages the normalization process that Turkey and Armenia embarked upon in early 2022.
“Turkey is sincere in its desire to normalize relations with Armenia, but the installation of the Nemesis monument in Armenia is unacceptable,” Cavusoglu said.
Official Yerevan did not immediately comment on Turkey’s condemnation of the Operation Nemesis monument inauguration in the Armenian capital or its ban on overflights for Armenian airlines that began to affect air traffic still last week.
But in remarks in parliament on Wednesday Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian acknowledged that the closure of Turkish airspace for Armenian planes was a problem. “But whose problem is it? It is our problem. Those who block our routes have no problems at all,” he said.
Pashinian said that the decision to erect the monument made months after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh reflected the desire “to avoid being called traitors.”
“But by being always guided by the logic of doing so as not to be called traitors we actually keep betraying the state and national interests of our country,” he said.