Turkey's airspace barred to Syria

Syria banned Turkish passenger flights from its airspace beginning at midnight on Oct. 14, in a retaliatory move after Turkey has forced a Syrian plane en route from Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara’s Esenboga Airport last week. Speaking to journalists in the central Anatolian province of Konya, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu recalled that a Syrian plane was stopped as it was carrying military cargo last week, and after that Turkish government decided Turkish planes would not use Syrian air space. Davutoglu said that Turkey earlier closed its air space to Syrian military flights, and yesterday it also barred its air space to Syrian civilian flights. "The Syrian announcement has no value for us," Davutoglu said, adding that the Syrian government was notified of the decision on Saturday. Davutoglu also dismissed a call for from the Syrian regime for dialogue, saying the regime should first have a dialogue with its own people. Davutoglu added that Turkey would retaliate without hesitation if its border with Syria is violated again and if it believes that its national security is in danger.