Azerbaijan airline to fly direct to the north

A PRIVATE Azeri airline said yesterday it would begin regular flights to Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, becoming the first non-Turkish carrier to fly direct to the internationally isolated enclave.

Ex-Soviet Azerbaijan has joined ally Ankara in pushing for the international embargo on northern Cyprus to be lifted. Last month it became the second state, after Turkey, to recognise Turkish Cypriot passports.

“From July 31… Imair airline will start running passenger flights each Sunday to Ercan airport,” Alexander Guliyev, director of Azeri tour company Improtex Travel, the airline’s partner in the project, told Reuters.

Guliyev said there was no political motive behind launching the flights. But the Azeri government has encouraged private firms to boost ties with northern Cyprus.

Most of Azerbaijan’s eight million population are of Turkic origin, and the country has very close cultural and political ties with Ankara.

Turkey is still the only country that recognises Turkish northern Cyprus as a state.
The United Nations recommended removing trade and political barriers on northern Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots last year voted in favour of a UN plan to reunite the Mediterranean island while Greek Cypriots voted against.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.