Compounding the confusion, the French Interior Ministry then said they had been arrested on arrival in Paris and had been charged with being linked to a terrorist organisation.
It later admitted this was not the case and said the French intelligence services had only been informed of their arrival after they had entered France at Marseille without checks.
"The Turkish initiative to change the plane was unfortunate," Le Drian said, adding the passport control system in Marseille had not been working, as is "often the case".