The Turkish authorities will continue to adhere to the Montreux Convention and will not allow warships to enter the Black Sea. This was stated by Turkish Minister of National Defense Hulusi Ankar on Sunday, April 10.
“Turkey will remain committed to the Montreux Convention and will not allow the entry of warships into the Black Sea,” he said on the A Haber TV channel.
The Montreux Convention was adopted in 1936. It retains the freedom of passage for merchant ships through the Black Sea straits of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, both in peacetime and in wartime, but everyone has different regimes for this. At the same time, the document limits the stay in the Black Sea of warships of non-Black Sea states for a period of three weeks. In case of emergency, Turkey has the right to prohibit or restrict the passage of warships through these straits.
Earlier on March 2, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey had and would continue to comply with the provisions of the Montreux Convention, explaining its refusal to allow Russian warships to pass through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.
In December 2021, it was also reported that the Ankara Prosecutor General’s Office prepared an indictment in the case of retired Turkish admirals who signed a collective letter in defense of the Montreux Convention on the status of the Bosporus and Dardanelles. According to the indictment, more than a hundred admirals “entered into a criminal conspiracy against the constitutional order”, the document was sent to the court.
The next day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the Turkish admirals’ letter in defense of the convention unacceptable. He added that the army should not interfere in politics.
