Today, Saturday, Turkish media quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying that Turkey had closed its airspace to Russian civilian and military aircraft bound for Syria.
"We have closed the airspace to Russian military aircraft, as well as civilian aircraft, bound for Syria. We announced this in March and the deadline expired in April," Turkish official TRT Haber TV quoted Cavusoglu as saying.
Çavuşoğlu indicated that he informed his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, of the decision, which in turn conveyed it to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to what was reported by Turkish correspondents who were accompanying the Turkish minister on the plane to Uruguay, Cavusoglu said, "Putin has issued an order, we will not fly anymore."
The Turkish minister indicated that the flight ban will last 3 months.
Turkey is trying to mediate to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as it hosted meetings between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul, and another meeting between Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Antalya.
Ankara is currently seeking to organize a summit in Istanbul between Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, although Cavusoglu acknowledged that the possibility of similar talks is still a long way off.