Turkey at the end of July blocked an Armenia-bound German military aircraft from entering its airspace, Spiegel reported on Friday.
According to Spiegel, Turkish air traffic controllers denied an overflight permit to a German air force transport plane, a gray Airbus 310 that had taken off from Cologne. The plane had to return to base.
The plane was reportedly on its way to Yerevan to pick up Armenian soldiers who are to be trained in Germany.
The Bundeswehr (German army) cooperates militarily with Armenia, and soldiers from the two countries are working together in Afghanistan.
Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia.
The German military had to follow a much longer flight route over Russia in mid-August to pick up the soldiers as a result of Turkey’s action.
“Refusing to allow military aircraft to overfly is a popular punitive action by autocratic states,” said the Spiegel report, contrasting it with the approval that is “considered routine among NATO partners.”