Turkish officials assured that the passage through the Turkish Straits to the Black Sea was continuing amid spillover of the Russia-Ukraine war into the latter.
On Saturday, Bloomberg News reported that Ankara had restricted commercial ship traffic entering the Black Sea following attacks on vessels there, including Turkish-owned ships. Türkiye has issued repeated warnings to Moscow and Kyiv over the attacks in the Black Sea, urging the warring sides to take measures to ensure navigational safety in the area. On Saturday, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara had conveyed to Moscow and Kyiv that they should declare a moratorium on their attacks in the Black Sea.
Two Turkish government officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Türkiye had implemented some temporary measures because it had been highly uncomfortable about security for some time, but that passage was clear under the conditions of the Montreux Convention. They did not give further detail.
The 1936 Montreux Convention of the Regime of the Straits gives Türkiye control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles, and the power to regulate transit of naval warships. It also guarantees the free passage of civilian vessels in peacetime and restricts the passage of ships not belonging to Black Sea countries. Türkiye, which has NATO's second-largest army, has maintained cordial ties with both Kyiv and Moscow since the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted in 2022. It has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia, while providing military support, including from its own inventory, to Ukraine.
Apart from attacks on Turkish-owned ships, Türkiye has also seen stray drones falling on its territories and territorial waters. On Sunday, the governorate of Artvin in northeastern Türkiye announced that an unmanned maritime vehicle detected off the Black Sea shore of Hopa district was demolished in a controlled way. The governorate did not specify the origin of the vehicle but said in a statement that the discovery was similar to those in the past after the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war.
