Turkey bars its air space to Syrian civilian flights

Turkey bars its air space to Syrian civilian flights, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday. Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey made the decision because the Syrian regime was "abusing" civilian flights by transporting military equipment. He said that Syria's government was notified of the decision on Saturday. Turkey made the decision in a response to the action by Damascus which decided to close its air space to Turkish airplanes. The Syrian government made the decision in response to Turkey's recent forcing of an airplane from Russia to Syria to land in Ankara on suspicion that it was carrying weapons to al-Assad regime forces. Russia said the plane was carrying spare radar parts, while Syria accused Turkey of piracy.