– Europe, Turkey Close Airspace to Russian Warplanes Fighting Daesh:
Europe and Turkey closed airspace for Russian Long-Range Aviation planes carrying out airstrikes on Daesh positions in Syria, forcing Russian pilots to reroute, Deputy Commander Maj. Gen. Anatoly Konovalov said Saturday.
“There were certain issues that excluded the possibility of performing the tasks by other means. Europe would not allow us, Turkey would not allow us,” Konovalov said.He added that even in such conditions, Russia’s Long-Range Aviation proved its capability to perform the assigned tasks.
Russia has been conducting airstrikes on positions of IS, a group outlawed in many countries including Russia, in Syria since late September at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
– Europe, Turkey Close Airspace To Russian Warplanes Flying Anti-ISIS Missions, General Says:
In other words, Europe and Turkey declined to allow Russia to use their airspace on the way to conducting airstrikes against the very same terrorists that attacked Paris just four days before the long-range warplanes were deployed to the fight in Syria.