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Barzani
Meets PUK Delegation, Agreement on Electricity Issue
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Turkish Pressure Halts Flights from Germany to Urmia and Iraqi Kurdistan
July 10, 2002 Al-Hayat was informed that strong Turkish pressure on the Iranian authorities, in addition to security and administrative problems inside Iran, made Medes-air stop its direct flights between Düsseldorf in Germany and Urmia in Iran, from where travelers take the land route to Iraqi Kurdistan. Director of the company, Francois Luvain, told Al-Hayat: “We were forced to stop our flights to Urmia after our failure to remove the security and administrative obstacles faced by the travelers at the Iranian airport, in addition to the contradictory decisions and references that control the major approvals for our function”. He added that his company substituted the line between Düsseldorf and the point near the Iranian, Iraqi, Turkish border crossing with another line that goes through Tehran as travelers continue their trip to Urmia after obtaining the entry visa. Luvain also announced that the Syrians have preliminarily agreed for his company fly into Qamishli, but a meeting scheduled last week was postponed as the Syrian minister of transportation was traveling. He added that he is planning to start a discussion with Turkey to have a similar flight, even though Turkey attempted to stop the company’s activities through Iran because it aids opposition organizations, especially the PKK to travel quickly from Europe to the Turkish border.
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