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Turkey says Israeli planes allowed to overfly ‘on condition’
In an announcement posted on its Web site on Saturday, the Air Forces Command referenced earlier news reports that two Israeli Air Force Gulfstream V-type jets, equipped with sophisticated intelligence equipment, flew over Hungary the same day a Syrian man was gunned down inside his luxury vehicle in Budapest.
In a possible sequel to an assassination in Dubai, Israeli spy planes flew uninvited and unannounced over Budapest, the same day a Syrian man was shot to death in his car there, Hungarian media reported Thursday.
The two Israeli jets flew more than 1,300 miles over Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania on Wednesday before flying over eastern Budapest and then disappearing, the reports said. With a letter from the Turkish Foreign Ministry dated March 4, the Turkish Air Forces had given the two Israeli warplanes permission to transit Turkish airspace with a route from Nevatim, Israel, through Budapest and Varna, and back to Nevatim, the announcement said.
“With the permission of the General Staff, flight permission is given to the said planes on condition of obeying all rules stated in the Turkey Aeronautical Information Publication [AIP]; of using air corridors in Turkish airspace; of not refueling midair; and of not being equipped with electronic apparatuses intended for photography, exploration and intelligence,” the statement said.
Earlier on Saturday, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has also announced that the two “unarmed” Israeli warplanes had been allowed access to their airspace. The ministry said the planes didn’t land on Bulgarian soil and that the use of air corridors is an extremely routine procedure, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Another statement came from the Romanian Defense Ministry on Saturday, which noted that that the Israeli jets that flew over Romania on Wednesday had all the required authorizations.
As of Friday, Hungarian officials said that the two planes, which made a low-level pass over Budapest, had nothing to do with the death of a Syrian man in the Hungarian capital on the same day.
However, a breakdown in internal communications meant the Hungarian Defense Ministry was not informed about the flight, and when the planes were sighted and reported in a Hungarian daily, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai ordered an investigation.
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