The aircraft carrying Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to Armenia to attend the European political community meeting had to land in the Turkish capital Ankara yesterday (Sunday) due to a “technical contingency”, the services of Spain’s head of government said.
“The Spanish delegation will spend the night in Ankara before resuming its journey to Armenia tomorrow (today),” according to the same source, who did not give further details on the nature of the problem that occurred.
A source for the French Press Agency, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had earlier said that socialist Prime Minister Sanchez’s plane made an emergency landing in Ankara, without going into details.
Sanchez is heading to the Armenian capital Yerevan for the eighth session of the European Political Community (EPC), an informal forum that meets twice a year with the participation of almost all the countries of the European continent, EU and non-EU members alike, with the only exceptions being Russia and Belarus.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has also been invited to this meeting. It will be the first participation of a non-European state in the EAC meeting, a sign of the rapprochement underway between Europe and Canada to counter the attacks by US President Donald Trump.
Prime Minister Sanchez is rather unusually popular in Turkey, partly because of his steadfast support for the Palestinian cause in recent years and partly because of his opposition to the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran.
