Iraq-Turkey air link cut by debt dispute

A relatively tiny Iraqi debt to Turkey, compared with the developing mutual trade volume, has resulted in a diplomacy problem that has frozen flights between the two countries. Turkey decided to ban state-owned Iraqi planes landing on its soil in a reaction to a similar decision by its neighbor starting from midnight Nov. 20. Iraqi Transportation Ministry spokesman Karim al-Nuri said the decision to block Turkish planes from Iraq was in response to a Turkish threat to seize Iraqi planes over a two-decade-old debt. Solving the problem might take days, according to Ercument Aksoy, head of the Turkish-Iraqi Business Council at Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK). "Unfortunately, Iraqi authorities reacted in an emotional way by banning Turkish planes from landing on Iraqi soil," he said. "Turkey's trade with Iraq is too valuable to be ruined with such moves." The Turkish Foreign Ministry is reported to have formed a crisis desk.