Turkish Airlines cancels Friday's Iran flights

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ISTANBUL - Turkish Airlines on Friday cancelled its seven flights from Istanbul to Iran -- five of them to the capital Tehran which has been rocked by protests against the rising cost of living, a spokesperson told AFP.

The other flights were bound for Tabriz and for Mashad, the spokesperson said.

Turkish Airlines had already cancelled two flights to Tehran on Thursday and one to Tabriz, the spokesperson said.

According to the Istanbul airport app, five other flights operated by Iranian airlines have also been cancelled, while seven others were still scheduled at midday.

Turkish authorities have not commented so far on the situation in Iran, where the protests have challenged the authorities under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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 space on Thursday night.

Turkey shares a border of around 500 kilometres (300 miles) with Iran, and there are three active land crossings between the two countries.