Turkish Airlines cancels Friday's Istanbul-Tehran flights
ISTANBUL
Turkish Airlines has cancelled its five Friday flights to the Iranian capital Tehran, which has been rocked by protests against the rising cost of living, according to the Istanbul Airport app.
Five other flights operated by Iranian airlines have also been cancelled, according to the airport app, while seven others remain scheduled.
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.
Türkiye shares a border of around 500 kilometres (300 miles) with Iran, and there are three active land crossings between the two countries.
Iran rocked by night of protests
Iranians staged their biggest protests yet of an almost two week movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, chanting slogans including "death to the dictator" and setting fire to official buildings, videos showed Friday.
Internet monitor Netblocks said authorities had imposed a total connectivity blackout late Thursday and added early Friday that the country has "now been offline for 12 hours... in an attempt to suppress sweeping protests".
The son of the shah of Iran ousted by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, US-based Reza Pahlavi, who had called for major protests Thursday, meanwhile urged a new show of force in the streets on Friday.
Several videos said protesters had set fire to the entrance to the regional branch of state television in the central city of Isfahan. It was not immediately possible to verify the images.
Flames were also seen in the governor's building in Shazand, the capital of the Markazi province in central Iran, after protesters gathered outside, other videos showed.
The protests late Thursday were the biggest in Iran since 2022-2023 rallies nationwide sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic's strict dress code.
Rights groups have accused authorities of firing on protesters in the current demonstrations, killing dozens. However the latest videos from Tehran did not show intervention by security forces.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to take severe action against Iran if its authorities "start killing people" who are protesting in the country
I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots -- they have lots of riots -- if they do it, we are going to hit them very hard," Trump said during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.