The aviation authorities of Ukraine and Turkey signed a deal Wednesday to increase the number of flights to and from both countries and add new destinations.

The weekly flights between Istanbul and Odessa have been doubled to 28, according to a statement from Turkey's General Directorate of Civil Aviation.

Both sides also agreed on including Aegean province of Izmir, Marmara region of the northwestern Bursa, holiday resorts Bodrum and Dalaman as new destinations in Turkey.

Ukrainian and Turkish citizens do not need visas to visit each others' countries, thanks to an agreement signed in March 2017. Over 1 million Ukrainian tourists visit Turkey every year, with seaside resorts serving as a major draw. </s> Baku. 31 March. REPORT.AZ/ Turkey takes part in Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) project and Ukraine may also join TANAP.

Report informs, Turkish Ambassador to Ukraine Yonet Can Tezel said in the forum entitled 'Capturing new markets', which held in Kiev.

According to the ambassador, construction of TANAP, which is a joint project between Azerbaijan and Turkey, will be completed in 2019.

Y.C.Tezel also mentioned that Ukrainian government is in more active position in the energy sector:

'On January 1 this year Russia put an embargo on goods from Turkey, but it did not affect the relations between Turkey and Ukraine. Turkish Airlines doubled flights to Ukrainian cities. Even tomorrow (eds. Today) Istanbul - Ivano - Frankovsk route will launch'.

Notably, large part of Ukraine's natural gas demand is met at the expense of Russia. </s> An armed pro-Russian separatist stands on part of the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane after it crashed near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014. The Dutch are due to announce on Wednesday 28 September the long-awaited results of an investigation with Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine into the July 17, 2014 downing of the flight. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it would allow U.S. airlines and codeshare partners to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine.

The FAA had barred flights over the war zones of Crimea and the Ukraine in April 2014, and expanded prohibitions after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down while it flew over eastern Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people on board.

The FAA said in a notice filed on a government website it would maintain prohibitions on flights over the Crimea and parts of Ukraine.

The air safety agency said it would allow takeoffs and landings at Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia international airports in Ukraine, saying operations could be conducted with “minimal additional risk.”

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, prompting international condemnation and Western sanctions, but since then there have been no major outbreaks of violence on the peninsula.

The FAA said security and safety conditions “have sufficiently stabilized in certain regions of Ukraine” to allow for additional flight operations. There have been over two years of safe flight operations on Black Sea air routes by non-U.S. airlines, prompting the change, it said.

The FAA said it was allowing flights to the three additional Ukraine airports, including one serving Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, because it believed there was enough of a “buffer from the area of fighting and associated weapons capabilities.”

The rules, which are currently scheduled to last until October 2020, also apply to foreign airlines operating a U.S. airline codeshare flight. </s> WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it will allow U.S. airlines and code-share partners to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine.

The FAA had barred flights over the war zones of the Crimea and Ukraine in April 2014, and expanded prohibitions after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down while it flew over eastern Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people on board.

The FAA said in a notice filed on a government website it would maintain prohibitions on flights over the Crimea and parts of Ukraine.

The air safety agency said it will allow takeoffs and landings at Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia international airports in Ukraine, saying operations could be conducted with "minimal additional risk." (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bernadette Baum) </s> MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Putin also expressed satisfaction with the start of normalization of Russian-Turkish relations implying revival of the whole complex of cooperation in political, economic, humanitarian, scientific and other spheres.

"The Russian head of state expressed confidence that basing on the achieved results the countries will continue productive joint work on boosting bilateral ties, actively cooperate in solving urgent issues on the regional and international agenda in the interests of the two countries and in line with ensuring security and stability on the Eurasian continent," the statement said.

Russian-Turkish relations have deteriorated following the downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syria by the Turkish Air Force. At the beginning of 2016, Russia imposed a number of restrictive measures, including a ban on charter flights, food and flowers imports.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the Syrian government and armed opposition groups reached an agreement on a ceasefire on Syrian territory, taking effect at 00:00 on Friday. Russia and Turkey took the role of the ceasefire guarantors, but other countries may also be invited, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it would allow U.S. airlines and codeshare partners to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine.

The FAA had barred flights over the war zones of Crimea and the Ukraine in April 2014, and expanded prohibitions after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down while it flew over eastern Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people on board.

The FAA said in a notice filed on a government website it would maintain prohibitions on flights over the Crimea and parts of Ukraine.

The air safety agency said it would allow takeoffs and landings at Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia international airports in Ukraine, saying operations could be conducted with “minimal additional risk.”

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, prompting international condemnation and Western sanctions, but since then there have been no major outbreaks of violence on the peninsula.

The FAA said security and safety conditions “have sufficiently stabilized in certain regions of Ukraine” to allow for additional flight operations. There have been over two years of safe flight operations on Black Sea air routes by non-U.S. airlines, prompting the change, it said.

The FAA said it was allowing flights to the three additional Ukraine airports, including one serving Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, because it believed there was enough of a “buffer from the area of fighting and associated weapons capabilities.”

The rules, which are currently scheduled to last until October 2020, also apply to foreign airlines operating a U.S. airline codeshare flight. </s> Russia has lifted trade sanctions on Turkish food products after Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on Friday, 2 June.

The decree signed by Medvedev now allows Turkey to export food items, from tomatoes and apricots to chicken products and salt, in Moscow. "The decree of the government dated November 30, 2015 with number 1296 specified a list of agricultural products, primary produce and food originated from the Turkish Republic restricted to be supplied to Russia starting January 1, 2016.

"The signed decree removes frozen parts of carcasses, by-products of dunghill-hens and turkeys, fresh and refrigerated cucumbers and cornichons, fresh apples, peaches, grapes, wild strawberries and strawberries from the list," a document posted on the government's website said.

The development came after a meeting on 3 May between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. During the talks, the two leaders agreed on a "complex decision to lift restrictive measures in mutual trade".

The 3 May talk was followed by another meeting on 22 May between the Russian and Turkish Deputy Prime Ministers – Arkady Dvorkovich and Mehmet Simsek – in which they signed a joint statement on mutually lifting the remaining trade restrictions.

Moscow has imposed sanctions on Ankara to protest against the shooting down of a Russian warplane by Turkey's military. The plane was shot down in November 2015 when it took part in Moscow's military campaign in Syria.

The attack had claimed the life of the pilot.

Although Ankara maintained its stand, claiming it acted lawfully because the plane had came into Turkish air space, Moscow refused to accept it.

Following the incident, a number of sanctions were imposed against Turkey, including in tourism sector in which charter flights from Russia to Turkey were banned and tour firms were asked to not sell any holidays there.

However, Russia did not let the incident affect energy exports, the core of economic relation between the two nations. </s> Russia on Friday further relaxed trade sanctions placed on Turkey in the aftermath of the downing of a Russian fighter jet in 2015. In a statement, the government said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had signed a decree lifting the ban on some agricultural produce and Turkish companies involved in construction, engineering and tourism.

The development is the latest in the lifting of sanctions imposed after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that had violated Turkish airspace from Syria in November 2015.

Friday's resolution removed frozen chicken and other poultry by-products as well as cucumbers, gherkins and fresh fruits from the list of blocked products, the government said. It also lifted the ban on Turkish construction, design, engineering and tourism-related companies. The decree did not mention restrictions on tomato imports from Turkey.

During a May 3 visit to Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Vladimir Putin agreed to remove sanctions with the exception of tomatoes.

During the 25th-anniversary summit for the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) in Istanbul on May 22, Turkey and Russia signed a joint declaration to life trade restrictions between the two countries with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, his Russian counterpart Medvedev, Turkey's deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek and his Russian counterpart Arkady Dvorkovich who attended the ceremony.

After November 2015, Moscow took several measures against Ankara, including the banning of imported Turkish agricultural products and the ending of visa-free travel for Turks. Relations were frozen for months between the countries but relaxed in the summer of 2016 when Putin and Erdoğan began to bury the hatchet.

Eight banned items

The ban on eight products including zucchini, pumpkin, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, eggplant, pepper, pomegranate and tomato, which has become the symbol of sanctions between the two countries, still continues. Ministerial-level talks will be held between the two countries in order to lift the ban on seven items except for tomatoes.

'Conditional' green light from Russia for tomato imports

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said only two restrictions, visa-free travel for Turkish citizens and tomatoes, remained for Turkey, reported Russian state news agency TASS on Friday.

"We will solve these issues within the framework of consultations with our Turkish counterparts on a reciprocal basis," Dvorkovich was quoted as saying by TASS. He said consultations on the seasonal admission of Turkish tomatoes to the Russian market would continue during the summer. Dvorkovich, answering journalists' questions at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), said that tomatoes might be imported from Turkey in low volumes for use in making products such as sauces and fruit juices. Noting that Turkish tomatoes with affordable prices can be used for processing, Dvorkovich said, "However, importing tomatoes in high volumes is not on our agenda."

"I think they will be going on through the summer. We can reach an agreement, but I would not expect any very high volumes of supplies; they will be rather limited," he told reporters on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Russian government put into effect the decision to remove all restrictions on Turkish food products, excluding tomatoes today.

Tomato ban to last at least 3 years

Russia's Agriculture Minister Aleksandr Tkachev, who took the toughest stance regarding the sanctions against Turkey and favored the continuation of the ban, said that the restrictions on Turkish tomatoes would last for at least three years. "The next three years will be decisive for the development of the tomato production sector in Russia. We have already reduced imports by almost twice, and we produce 800,000 tons of tomatoes in our country," Tkachev told Sputnik in an interview. "We have to increase our production by about 500,000 tons more. This requires three to five years depending on the market. For this reason, the return of Turkish tomatoes to our market is not in question in the near future." </s> Turkey has signed a deal with Russia to buy S-400 missile defence systems in its first major weapons purchase from Moscow, Turkish newspapers Tuesday quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying.

The accord for the surface-to-air missile defence batteries is also Ankara’s most significant deal with a non-NATO supplier.

“Signatures have been made for the purchase of S-400s from Russia. A deposit has also been paid as far as I know,” Erdogan said in comments published in the Hurriyet daily and other newspapers.

“(Russian President Vladimir Putin) and myself are determined on this issue,” he told journalists.

The purchase of the missile systems from a non-NATO supplier will raise concerns in the West over their technical compatibility with the alliance’s equipment.

The Pentagon has already sounded the alarm, saying bluntly that “generally it’s a good idea” for NATO allies to buy inter-operable equipment.

Erdogan said Turkey was free to make military acquisitions based on its defence needs.

“Nobody has the right to discuss the Turkish republic’s independence principles or independent decisions about its defence industry,” he said in the comments published Tuesday.

“We make the decisions about our own independence ourselves, we are obliged to take safety and security measures in order to defend our country.”

The Turkish leader said the process would continue with a transfer of Russian credit to Turkey.

Moscow also confirmed the accord, with Vladimir Kozhin, Putin’s adviser for military and technical cooperation, saying: “The contract has been signed and is being prepared for implementation.”

He said that the S-400 was one of the most complex systems, made up of a whole range of technical materials.

“I can only guarantee that all decisions taken on this contract strictly comply with our strategic interests,” he was quoted as saying by Russian state-owned TASS news agency.

“For this reason we fully understand the reactions of several Western countries which are trying to put pressure on Turkey”.

Russia’s relations with NATO have been in crisis over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and for backing pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, has currently troubled ties with the United States over a number of issues including Washington’s support of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) Syrian Kurd militia which Ankara considers a terror group.

The Turkish-Russian contract is a sign of better relations between Ankara and Moscow since a reconciliation deal was signed last year following the 2015 shooting down by the Turkish military of a Russian plane over the Syrian border.

Moscow has accepted Ankara’s expressions of regret over the incident and the two countries have revived the relationship since then.

Ankara was also gladdened by Moscow’s response to the July 15, 2016 failed coup in Turkey.

Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support and sharing none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown.
Ukraine and Turkey sign an agreement improving aviation co-operation.