Turkey Grounds Civilian Airplane

By Marcos Gonzalez

Syria lashed out at the Turkish government after a civilian airplane on it way to Syria was grounded in Turkey.

The plane that was grounded by Turkish authorities contained munitions, in violation of civil aviation rules, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

“They are equipment and munitions sent for the Syrian Defense Ministry from a Russian institution” Erdogan told a televised news conference in Ankara.

An inspection of the plane, an Airbus A320 flying from Moscow to , is currently underway.

The pilot ignored several warning not to enter Turkey’s airspace, the foreign ministry released today. The ministry said the pilot gave no information on the passengers of the plane, and left Turkey unaware some were Russian.

“This hostile and deplorable Turkish act is an additional indication of the hostile policy of Erdogan’s government,” Syria’s foreign ministry said in a statement, believing Turkey is, “harboring terrorists” and allowing them to enter Syria from their border.

An engineer at the Syrian Airlines passenger on the plane, Haitham Kasser, said the Turkish soldiers attacked the crew “by guns, handcuffed us and forced us to lie on the packages.”

Kasser said the Turkish were looking into the boxes that contained nothing but electrical equipment.

The incident cause more unrest among the Turkey and Syria relation after the Turkish army attacked Syria over the past week in response to the shelling of a town located on the Turkish border that left five civilians dead during clashes between rebels and the Syrian army.

The Turkish ministry denied claims that certain travelers had been abused and stated Russian authorities were updated routinely concerning their citizens status.

Turkey stated it could stop more Syrian citizen airplane utilizing its airspace if they enter and trained Turkish planes to evade Syrian airspace, because it is no longer safe.

Photo Courtesy: AP Images