YEREVAN. May 4 (Interfax) - Armenian National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan plans to discuss the closure by Turkey of its airspace to Armenian flights at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mustafa Sentop.
"Speaker of the Armenian parliament Alen Simonyan will meet with the Turkish parliament speaker in Ankara today. At the meeting, he intends to raise the issue of Turkey's closure of its airspace. It is necessary to resolve ongoing problems, and currently Armenian air carriers cannot use this airspace, which causes problems," Chairman of the Armenian parliament's Committee on Foreign Relations Sargis Khandanyan said at a press briefing on Thursday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday that Turkey closed its airspace to Armenian planes en route to third countries "in response to the provocative placement of the Nemesis monument in the center of Yerevan." A monument to Operation Nemesis was unveiled in central Yerevan on April 25 at a request from the descendants of some members of the Nemesis group, which carried out the operation as an act of retribution against the organizers of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday that the closure by Turkey of its airspace to Armenian planes flying to third countries is more of a problem for Armenia than Turkey. Armenia has almost never followed its economic interests, but instead its emotions, he said.
As reported, Simonyan is currently in Ankara, where he is attending a summit of the parliament speakers from member countries of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the assembly's founding and is also taking part in the plenary session of the BSEC General Assembly.