EC/261 eligibility for a multi-flight itinerary only partly in the EU

Question

A followup to this question:

I have booked an itinerary on Turkish Airways travelling from outside the EU to the EU via Istanbul, consisting of four flights, all on the same PNR.

1. Asia-IST
2. IST-EU
3. EU-IST
4. IST-Asia

If I'm parsing my Air passenger rights page right, since TK is a non-EU carrier, the only flight out of these four where EC/261 compensation rules apply is flight #3 ("your flight departs from the EU to a non-EU country operated by an EU or a non-EU airline"). A non-official site also states that:

In some cases, disrupted flights outside the EU may be eligible under EC261 if they connect to a covered flight that is with the same carrier and part of the same flight reservation (under one booking reference number).

But does not explain what these "some cases" are, much less point to an authoritative source.

In my case, TK has cancelled flight #1, effectively invalidating the entire itinerary. If TK does not notify me of flight #1's cancellation in time (at least 14 days), am I entitled to the EU compensation for flight #3?

Note that this is not a directly connecting flight, so I presume the answer is "no", but it would be nice to find an authoritative source.

Answer 1

For the stated itinerary, when flying on a non-EU carrier as you are, EU261 covers flights 3 and 4, presuming that there is no extended layover between these two flights.

Flight 3 is clearly covered by the legislation. Flight 4 is covered as a result of a court case a few years ago that concluded that EU261 covers the connecting flight as well, even if that flight is entirely outside of the EU.

EU261 does NOT cover flights beginning outside of the EU where those flights are not flown by an EU carrier, so does not cover either flights 1 or 2.

However, Turkey has it's own airline passenger rights legislation that roughly mirrors the EU legislation, with similar compensation for cancelations. You can find a copy of these regulations here. All 4 of your flight should be covered by the Turkish version.