Bad weather hits diplomacy traffic in Turkey

Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres, who arrived in Ankara earlier this week for talks with Turkish opposition leader Deniz Baykal and government officials, was unable to return to Israel on Friday as scheduled.

Peres was expected to hold a press conference at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and depart early on Friday but heavy snow at the airport forced his flight to be cancelled. Peres also had difficulties in arriving in Istanbul from Ankara late on Thursday; his plane landed later than scheduled as the pilots were waiting for the runway to be cleared and made ready for landings.

Turkish Airlines cancelled all scheduled flights from and to Ataturk Airport until midnight on Friday.

Another diplomatic guest that had to change his schedule under adverse weather conditions was Irene Khan, the secretary-general of Amnesty International. Khan and the delegation accompanying her were waiting in their hotel in Ankara for the weather conditions to improve as they were unable to head for the southeastern province of Diyarbakir as scheduled.

In Diyarbakir, Khan was scheduled to hold talks with a number of human rights NGOs.

Heavy snowfall also hampered plans to bring 16 Iraqis wounded in attacks against offices of the two Kurdish groups, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on Feb. 1.

Seven Iraqi Kurds wounded in the suicide bombing attacks had already been brought to Turkey for treatment in hospitals in Ankara. The wounded are now expected to be brought to Turkey on Monday.