Türkiye has issued a warning to Moscow to avoid further escalations after a Turkish-owned cargo vessel was attacked and raided by the Russian navy last weekend, the Presidential Communications Directorate said Thursday.
Russia fired warning shots with automatic weapons at the Palau-flagged Şükrü Okan before its armed marines raided the vessel via helicopter last Sunday some 60 kilometers (37 miles) off Türkiye's northwest coast, in international waters but near Istanbul.
Moscow suggested that the ship had failed to respond to a demand for it to halt, and called its action an inspection before the vessel sailed on toward the Ukrainian port of Izmail – the main export route for Ukraine's agricultural products.
It was unclear why the ship was boarded so close to Türkiye. The vessel has since sailed on to Romanian waters, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
"After the (Russian) intervention, our interlocutors in the Russian Federation were warned appropriately to avoid such attempts, which escalate tensions in the Black Sea," the communications directorate said.
It marks the first statement by Türkiye, NATO's second-largest military, on the incident that occurred far south of the war that has raged for a year and a half in the north Black Sea.
The Communications Directorate pushed back against criticism for not making earlier public comments, saying that it was technically up to Palau to respond to the incident.
"Even if the owner of the Şükrü Okan vessel is Turkish, the ship is not Turkish flagged," the statement said.
"In international law, it is the 'flag state' that is more important than the name of the ship or the personality of its personal."
Palau is a Pacific archipelago whose flag is often used by shipping companies to freely access international ports.
The incident came during a spike in Black Sea region attacks that followed Russia's decision to withdraw from a landmark deal that had protected grain exports from Ukraine last month.
Türkiye helped broker the U.N.-backed agreement, using its good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv to help strike the only major deal reached by the sides during the war.
Erdoğan has maintained good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he has invited to Türkiye this month, as Ankara seeks to coax Moscow back to the grain initiative that would restore some calm to the Black Sea.
Since Russia exited the agreement, both it and Ukraine have issued warnings and carried out attacks on vessels off their coasts, stirring worries that commercial shipping could grow riskier across the entire sea.
While Ukraine and some other Western states have promoted alternative routes for Ukrainian exports, Ankara opposes them on safety grounds. It wants the West to accept some Russian demands, and for Russia to drop others, to restart Ukraine grain exports under United Nations and Turkish oversight.
On Wednesday, Russia struck more Ukrainian port facilities even as Kyiv announced that the first container ship had departed the port of Odesa under its own "humanitarian corridor," one of the alternative options.
The civilian cargo vessel reached Turkish waters on Thursday despite the Russian blockade.
The Black Sea and Turkish straits are the main route Ukraine and Russia – two of the world's top agriculture producers – use to reach world markets.
Since the year-long grain deal collapsed, boosting global commodity prices and raising U.N. concerns over world hunger, Russia and Ukraine have said they will treat ships approaching the other's ports as potential military vessels.
Türkiye has positioned itself to facilitate any peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. It has opposed the Russian invasion but also the Western sanctions on Moscow.
Russia has said it would return to the grain deal once the West fulfills obligations meant to ensure the smooth export of its own grain and fertilizers, including payments and logistics.