Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

An Armenian cargo plane carrying humanitarian aid to Syria was prompted to land at an airport in Turkey by the authorities on Thursday morning, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

The Antonov AN 12 plane was grounded at the Erzurum airport in Turkey's Eastern Anatolia region. Ammunition experts from the Turkish armed forces and police have searched the airplane with trained police dogs. Health officers have also arrived at the airport.

All the humanitarian aid packages were reportedly to be checked in X-ray machines. The search was expected to last until noon.

The authorities have not made a statement regarding the inspection.

To prevent the press taking photos, the authorities surrounded the plane with trailer trucks.

The AIR Armenia airline said the transport plane had landed in Turkey according to a preliminary agreement, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Earlier, in mid-October, Turkey grounded and searched another Armenian cargo airplane carrying humanitarian aid to Syria. Turkish authorities said earlier they would inspect all cargo planes flying to Syria to check possible presence of weapons on board.

Then, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the plane had made a "technical landing" due to "certain violations".

But Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said the landing in Turkey by this aircraft had been planned and it took place in full compliance with an agreement reached earlier.

Turkey had given the all clear for an Armenian plane to continue on its journey to the Syrian city of Aleppo after ordering it to land in eastern Turkey to search its cargo of humanitarian aid.

A large Armenian community lives in Syria. According to some estimates, it includes 80,000 to 100,000 people, of whom 50,000-60,000 live in Aleppo and the rest in Latakia, Damascus, Kesap and Al Qamishli.

Ankara has stepped up efforts to prevent its air space being used to supply the Syrian military and forced down a Syrian airliner travelling from Moscow last month, saying it was carrying Russian munitions destined for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military.