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Flickr/ Dmitry Terekhov
Ankara has violated the Open Skies Treaty by not allowing Russian inspectors to conduct a scheduled inspection flight over the Turkish territory, a move that Moscow will not leave without proper response, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
MOSCOW
(Sputnik) — Russian inspectors were scheduled to perform an observation
flight on board the An-30B plane over the Turkish territory within the
framework of the Open Skies Treaty on February 1-5.
"We are not going to leave this violation of the treaty by Turkey without proper attention and adequate response," the official stressed.
"The itinerary included the observation
of areas adjacent to the Turkish border with Syria, as well as airfields
that host NATO warplanes. However, after the arrival of the Russian
mission to Turkey and the announcement of the desired itinerary, the
Turkish military officials refused to allow the inspection flight citing
an order from the Turkish Foreign Ministry," head of the ministry’s
National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center Sergey Ryzhkov said in a
statement.
Ryzhkov called the Turkish move "a dangerous precedent
of uncontrolled military activity carried out by a member of the Open
Skies Treaty."We are not going to leave this violation of the treaty by Turkey without proper attention and adequate response," the official stressed.
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