Turkey closes its airspace to Israeli official and military aircraft

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced on Friday during a parliamentary address on the Gaza crisis that Ankara has closed its airspace to Israeli official and military aircraft.

“We have completely cut off our trade with Israel. We have closed our ports to Israeli ships and are not allowing Turkish ships to dock at Israeli ports. No other country has fully severed trade ties with Israel as we have,” Fidan said. 

“We are barring container ships carrying weapons and ammunition to Israel from entering our ports, and we are not permitting Israeli aircraft to use our airspace.” 

Fidan’s announcement of a no-fly policy for Israeli planes surprised many in Ankara. However, Turkish officials speaking to Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity clarified that Turkey had already closed its airspace to Israeli official and military flights in late 2023.

A separate Turkish source familiar with the issue said international commercial airliners flying to Israel would still be able to use Turkish airspace, denying reports published in Israeli and Turkish media.

The source said official, military and private Israeli aeroplanes had been barred from Turkish airspace for a long time, but no new steps had been taken to block foreign commercial flights from using it.

A second Turkish official noted that Turkish authorities blocked Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s flight to Azerbaijan in November.

“We have been consistently denying Israeli official flight requests for quite some time,” the official said. 

Fidan justified these measures as a response to Israel’s actions in Gaza, its provocations at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, and ongoing settler violence in the occupied West Bank. 

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Earlier this week, Fidan also called on Islamic nations to push for Israel’s suspension from United Nations General Assembly meetings and activities. 

“We must unite our efforts to sustain and expand momentum for Palestine’s recognition while launching an initiative at the UN for Palestine’s full membership. Additionally, we must consider suspending Israel from the work of the General Assembly,” he said during an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Riyadh. 

Turkey recently imposed additional restrictions on Israeli-owned and affiliated vessels, barring them from docking at Turkish ports.

These shipping measures follow Ankara’s announcement last month of six sanctions against Israel, aligned with The Hague Group’s joint statement from the Bogota Emergency Conference on Palestine.

Turkish-Israeli relations have deteriorated sharply since last year, when Turkey joined South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide. Since then, Ankara has increasingly used international platforms to build an alliance against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.