- NEW: Russia's foreign minister says the plane carried no weapons
- Turkey imposes a new route for Jeddah-bound planes
- The new route mostly affects pilgrims going to Saudi Arabia
- News agency says planes will use airspace belonging to Jordan and Northern Cyprus
Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- In a sign of escalating tensions, Turkey diverted its civilian planes Friday to avoid using Syrian airspace. The two neighbors have been engaged in a diplomatic tussle since Turkish civilians died in cross-border shelling last week.
Turkey imposed the new route for Jeddah-bound planes because it considers Syrian airspace unsafe, according to TRT, the Turkish national public broadcaster.
The route mostly affects pilgrims going to Saudi Arabia. Planes will use airspace belonging to Jordan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, TRT said.
Read more: Syrian conflict threatens regional stability
A Syrian opposition fighter stands near a post in Aleppo on Thursday, October 11. Click through the gallery to view images of the fighting in October. See photographs of the fighting in September. 
Syrians carry a wounded girl into a hospital in Aleppo on Thursday. 
A heavily armed Syrian opposition fighter stands near a post in Aleppo on Thursday. 
A Syrian man walks through rubble in Aleppo on Thursday. 
A Syrian man and boy ride a horse cart in Aleppo on Thursday. 
Smoke billows from buildings following shelling by government forces in Aleppo on Thursday. 
Syrian people carry bread as they walk in the streets of Aleppo on Thursday. 
Bodies of Syrian civilians lie in the back of a truck outside a hospital following shelling by Syrian government forces during clashes with opposition fighters in Aleppo on Thursday. 
Syrian civilians walk in front of damaged buildings in Aleppo on Thursday. 
Syrian opposition fighters walk in the streets of Aleppo on Thursday. 
Syrian government forces take cover during clashes with rebel fighters at the Karam al-Jabal neighborhood in Aleppo on Thursday. 
A Syrian opposition fighter flashes the sign for victory as he guards a post with his comrades in Aleppo on Thursday. 
A Syrian man mourns the death of his father, who was killed during a government attack in Aleppo on Wednesday, October 10. 
Syrian youths walk past graffiti in the rebel-held city of Minbej on Wednesday. 
A Syrian rebel fighter holds a cigarette and prayer beads in Aleppo on Tuesday, October 9. 
A Syrian man carries the body of his 5-year-old son, Mohammed Mustafa, outside a hospital after shelling by Syrian government forces in Aleppo on Tuesday. 
An injured Syrian woman rides to a hospital after an airstrike by regime forces in Aleppo on Tuesday. 
A Syrian rebel commander prays in a damaged mosque during clashes with government forces on Tuesday in Aleppo. 
A rubble-filled street is seen during clashes between rebel fighters and Syrian government forces in the Saif al-Dawla district of Aleppo on Tuesday. 
Relatives wheel a injured boy outside a hospital on Tuesday in Aleppo. 
A Syrian rebel fighter takes position inside a house in Aleppo during clashes with government forces on Tuesday. 
A Syrian man watches an army fighter jet flies over Aleppo on Monday, October 8. 
A Syrian army fighter jet flies over the northern city of Aleppo on Monday. 
A wounded Syrian rebel fighter holds his blood-stained hands as he receives treatment at a hospital near the frontline in the city of Aleppo on Monday, October 7. 
Abdul Razzak from the Aleppo News talks on a walkie talkie in Aleppo on Monday. 
Syrian rebels take up positions inside a building during clashes with government forces in Aleppo on Saturday, October 6. 
Syrian members of the Al-Saiqa rebel brigade clean weapons on Saturday before going to the front line in Aleppo. 
A Syrian rebel runs across a heavily damaged street to dodge sniper fire during clashes on Saturday. 
Syrian rebels patrol a neighborhood in Aleppo on Friday, October 5. 
A Syrian demonstrator shouts during an anti-regime protest in Aleppo on Friday. Tensions rippled across Turkey a day after Syrian shells struck a Turkish border town and killed five people. 
A Syrian rebel takes position during clashes with government forces in Aleppo on Friday. 
An injured Free Syrian Army fighter rests after receiving treatment at Dar al Shifa hospital in Aleppo on Thursday, October 4. 
A child covers his wounds from a Syrian army sniper at Dar al Shifa hospital on Thursday. 
A Free Syrian Army figther cries after one of his friends was injured in fighting with government forces outside the Dar El Shifa hospital on Thursday. 
A Dar El Shifa worker cleans the floor outside the hospital in Aleppo on Thursday. 
Syrian rebel fighters look at a multirocket launcher in Tal Abyadh, a Syrian town close to the Turkish border, on Thursday. 
Rebels climb the stairs of a destroyed building Thursday in Tal Abyadh. 
Smoke rises from the explosion area after several Syrian shells crashed inside the town of Akcakale in Turkey, killing at least five people on Wednesday, October 3. It wasn't the first deadly cross-border incident between the two neighbors during the 18-month-long uprising in Syria. 
A police officer is injured in Wednesday's attack on Akcakale in Turkey's Sanliurfa province. 
Three car bombs destroyed the area around a military officers' club and a hotel in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday. At least 40 people were killed and 90 wounded, most of them soldiers, a monitoring group said. 
Car bomb explosions on Wednesday left a crater in the ground. 
A nurse helps treat a 7-year-old girl who's neck was badly wounded by shrapnel at the Dar Al Shifaa hospital in Aleppo on Monday, October 1. 
Friends lay a rebel fighter on a gurney after he was shot in the chest during heavy battles in the Midan neighborhood on Monday. 
Photos: Showdown in Syria 
Syrian troops surrender in vital town 
Syrian writer was beaten, humiliated 
Syrian defector speaks Before the changes, Turkish civilian planes flew to Jeddah over Aleppo and Hatay Kamısli.
Turkish civilian planes leaving from Europe will use Egyptian airspace to go to Jeddah, TRT said.
The move comes after Turkey used F-16 warplanes to force a Syrian airliner to land at Ankara's airport for a search Wednesday. A week before the forced landing, Syrian forces killed Turkish civilians in cross-border shelling.
Once the airliner landed, Turkey confiscated "items ... traveling from Russia's agency that exports weapons munitions and military supplies to Syria's defense ministry," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday.
Read more: Who is arming Syria?
The Syrian Information Ministry and Russian officials rejected Turkey's claim. Turkish officials have not specified the exact contents of the plane.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the plane carried no weapons, just radar components that were consistent with international law. Russia has "no secrets," he told state broadcaster Russia Today regarding the incident.
Turkey has intercepted Iranian shipments of arms headed to Syria through Turkish territory and airspace over the past year. In those cases, the government remained similarly silent about the nature of those shipments, perhaps to avoid embarrassing Iran, a neighbor and major Turkish trading partner.
Once-strong relations between Turkey and Syria have grown tense over the past year after the Syrian government began a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters. Ankara backs the anti-government rebels and has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
More recently, the two neighbors exchanged artillery fire following the death of five civilians killed by a Syrian shell that fell into a Turkish border village.
On the ground
Regime forces raided neighborhoods in Damascus and the city's suburbs early Friday, according to the Local Coordination Committees for Syria, a network of opposition activists.
Read more: Fears grow that Syria may block internet
At least 35 people were killed across Syria, including seven Free Syrian Army soldiers, opposition activists said. The Free Syrian Army is the main armed opposition group in Syria.
CNN cannot confirm reports of violence or casualty counts in Syria because the government has restricted access to international journalists.
CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali and Gul Tuysuz contributed to this report.
