Ankara is determined to transparently follow the Montreux Convention, Turkish Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop said Friday.
"Turkey is transparently following all clauses of the Montreux treaty with determination. This has been the case until today and Turkey will continue to strictly abide by the clauses of this treaty," Şentop told reporters in the northwestern Tekirdağ province.
His comments came amid requests by Ukraine for Turkey to close the Çanakkale (the Dardanelles) and Istanbul (Bosporus) Straits to Russian ships, following Moscow's decision to start a military operation in Ukraine.
Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, NATO member Turkey has control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, linking the Mediterranean and Black seas. The pact gives Ankara the power to regulate the transit of naval warships and to close the straits to foreign warships during wartime and when it is threatened.
Şentop urged Russia and Ukraine to find a diplomatic solution to their issues.
"We call on the authorities of Russia and Ukraine to establish grounds for dialogue and negotiations to resolve their problems through peaceful means," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of Moscow's long-feared military intervention in Ukraine early Thursday, saying the operation aims to protect people "subjected to genocide" by Kyiv and to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. He also called on the Ukrainian army to lay down its arms.
The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin has considered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's proposal for negotiations and is ready to send a delegation to Minsk for talks with Ukrainian officials.
Earlier this month, six Russian warships and a submarine transited the Dardanelles and Bosporus to the Black Sea for what Moscow called naval drills near Ukraine waters.
Earlier this week, President Tayyip Erdoğan said that Turkey, which has good ties with both Ukraine and Russia, could not abandon its ties with either country and that it would take steps to ensure relations remain intact.
While building close cooperation with Russia on defense and energy, Ankara has also sold sophisticated drones to Ukraine and signed a deal to co-produce more, angering Moscow. Turkish officials noted that the country would continue to support Ukraine's territorial integrity and unity.
Turkey opposes Russian policies in Syria and Libya, its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its 2008 recognition of two Georgian regions.
