{"id":30746,"date":"2019-01-27T03:23:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T03:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30746"},"modified":"2019-01-27T03:23:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T03:23:26","slug":"turkey-resumes-flights-to-iraqs-sulaimaniyah-after-16-month-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30746","title":{"rendered":"Turkey resumes flights to Iraq&#8217;s Sulaimaniyah after 16-month ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"body-200771816342556199\" readability=\"105.642734061\">\n<p class=\"speakable\">Turkey has resumed flights to the Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah after a 16-month boycott, officials in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/iraq.html\">Iraq<\/a>&#8216;s semi-autonomous Kurdish region have said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">A Turkish Airlines flight arrived at Sulaimaniyah airport early on Saturday<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Tahir Abdullah, the director of the airport, said that the restoration of daily flights from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/turkey.html\">Turkey<\/a> would revive a key revenue stream to the region after Ankara suspended air traffic to and from the city following a controversial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/programmes\/upfront\/2018\/04\/kurdish-independence-movement-failed-180407111909828.html\">independence <span>referendum<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Turkish flight ban has damaged Sulaimaniyah&#8217;s airport revenue by $5.4 million over the past year,&#8221; Abdullah said.<\/p>\n<p>There were 36 percent fewer flights in 2018, with imports dropping by 73 percent and exports by 82 percent, according to Abdullah.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Due to the Turkish flight ban, Sulaimaniyah airport loses $15,000 every day,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Iraqi authorities had halted all international flights to Erbil, the capital of Iraq&#8217;s Kurdish region, and Sulaimaniyah, after the Kurdish region proceded with a controversial independence referendum in September 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/people\/kurds.html\">Kurds<\/a> had considered the referendum to be an historic step in the generations-old quest for a state of their own, whereas Iraq had considered the vote unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey also opposed the vote fearing it could boost calls for self-rule among its own Kurdish population.<\/p>\n<p>Baghdad lifted the ban in March last year following a deal to hand control of two airports to the central government.<\/p>\n<p>In March, Turkey lifted the ban on Erbil, but kept it on Sulaimaniyah for security reasons.<\/p>\n<p>The head of Iraq&#8217;s Civil Aviation Authority, Ali Khalil Ibrahim said Iraqi Airways will resume flights between Sulaimaniyah and Istanbul in the next few days.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Al Jazeera&#8217;s Jennifer Glasse contributed to this report.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"32\">\n<p>\n            SOURCE:<br \/>\n            <span>Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turkey has resumed flights to the Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah after a 16-month boycott, officials in Iraq&#8217;s semi-autonomous Kurdish region have said. A Turkish Airlines flight arrived at Sulaimaniyah airport early on Saturday Tahir Abdullah, the director of the airport, said that the restoration of daily flights from Turkey would revive a key revenue stream&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}