Turkish Airlines has canceled 17 scheduled flights to the Iranian capital of Tehran and the cities of Tabriz and Mashhad over the next two days, citing regional developments linked to nationwide protests, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
In a statement on Friday Turkey’s flag carrier said flights planned for Friday and Saturday were suspended due to the situation in Iran. The airline did not provide further details.
The cancellations affect services to Tehran, Tabriz and Mashhad, Turkish Airlines said.
Separately, Turkish low-cost carrier AJet said it had canceled six flights to Tehran over the same two-day period, citing regional developments. The airline said passengers affected by the cancellations are being notified.
Turkish authorities have not commented so far on the situation in Iran, where days-long protests have challenged the authorities under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The protests have been sparked by anger over the collapse of the Iranian currency and have spread to more than 100 cities and towns across all 31 of Iran’s provinces, according to human rights groups.
The Iranian government was already battling an economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering from the June war against Israel.
Rights groups have accused Iranian security forces of opening fire on demonstrators, with the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights saying Thursday that security forces had killed at least 45 protesters, including eight minors, since the demonstrations began
According to the specialist website Flight Radar, a Turkish Airlines plane flying to Shiraz and a Pegasus flight to Mashad turned back from Iranian airspace on Thursday night.
Turkey shares a border of around 500 kilometers (300 miles) with Iran, and there are three active land crossings between the two countries.