Turkish helicopter
© AFP 2015/ Mandy CHENG
Turkish military helicopters briefly violated Armenia's airspace several days ago, the head of Civil Aviation Department said in an interview with local media.

"Turkish military aircraft violated Armenia's airspace on October 6-7 for 2-4 minutes; certain measures were taken in accordance with special procedures," Artyom Movsisyan told the daily newspaper Hraparak.

Dispatcher at Armats, the Armenian Air Traffic Services agency, took corresponding steps to identify the aircraft."

The Ankara dispatcher told the Armenian one that military passenger helicopters had crossed the border, but had quickly left without advancing into Armenia's territory.

"The Ankara dispatcher also said the Turkish helicopters entered Armenia's airspace because of bad weather," Hraparak quoted Movsisyan as saying.

Armenia is hosting Russia's 102nd military base which is on combat duty as part of the Unified Air Defense System of the CIS countries and the Russian military contingent in the South Caucasus region.

Turkey, which is a NATO member state, expressed concern earlier this week about a an incident in which a Russian warplane, operating in Syria, trespassed into Turkish airspace, on October 3.


Comment: NATO in comparison called an emergency meeting and expressed deep concern because a Russian aircraft deviated into Turkish airspace for a few seconds! Not to mention that Turkey violates the airspace of Greece daily, with a total of 1306 violations from January to August 2015, to which NATO didn't react to support Greece.


Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu assured Moscow on Monday that the incident would not sour relations between the two countries.

Russia's Sukhoi Su-25, Su-24M and Su-34 attack aircraft, with the support of Su-30 jets, commenced precision airstrikes against IS targets in Syria on September 30, following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad.