A lawmaker from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party is pressing the government to explain why planes registered in Israel appear to be flying over Turkey, even after officials announced a ban on Israeli air traffic last month.
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a member of parliament for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (DEM Party), submitted a series of written questions to Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday.
He pointed out that international flight-tracking websites still show Israeli-registered aircraft crossing Turkish skies.
This comes two weeks after Fidan told parliament that Turkey had closed its airspace to Israeli planes, shut its ports to Israeli ships and cut off all trade with the country.
The measures were announced in August 2025 as part of Ankara’s escalating response to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza.
For Turkey the restrictions were meant to signal solidarity with Palestinians and punish Israel diplomatically and economically.
But Gergerlioğlu said the reality on the ground does not match the government’s tough rhetoric.
He asked whether the airspace ban covers all types of flights, including commercial passenger planes, military aircraft, private jets and cargo planes.
He also demanded to know the dates and details of official aviation notices, known as NOTAMs, that would legally enforce such restrictions.
The lawmaker pressed for explanations about any exceptions, such as humanitarian aid flights or medical evacuations.
He even asked whether Israeli aircraft have been allowed to cross Turkish military corridors and whether fuel stops or training exercises had taken place.
Turkey’s August measures, although packaged by Ankara as such, were not a blanket ban, but instead targeted Israeli-flagged ships or planes and vessels operated by the Israeli government, while leaving room for foreign-flagged ships to continue doing business with Israel using Turkish ports as well as Israeli commercial flights crossing Turkish airspace.
That nuance may now become a political liability, as opposition lawmakers accuse the government of misleading the public.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, launched after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, has included extensive bombardment, mass displacement and restrictions on humanitarian aid, and killed more than 64,900 Palestinians while injuring more than 164,000, according to the Gaza health authorities.
Corraborating these figures were remarks last week by Israel’s former chief of staff, retired general Herzi Halevi, who confirmed that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured in Gaza since October 2023, and that “not once” in the course of the conflict were military operations inhibited by legal advice.
Leading international organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have concluded that Israel’s military operations in Gaza amount to genocide.
On September 1 the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the world’s foremost academic body on the subject, passed a resolution declaring that Israel’s campaign meets the definition of genocide under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.