The pact regulating the transition of warships from the Black Sea has made Turkey a very key actor in the region with Russia-Ukraine tensions escalating dangerously. Under the international Montreux Convention, NATO member Turkey has control over the passage of vessels between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, making it a potentially key player in any military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Earlier this month, six Russian warships and a submarine transited Turkey's Dardanelles and Bosporus Strait to the Black Sea for what Moscow called naval drills near Ukraine waters.
The Montreux Convention was signed in 1936 after Turkey, concerned over expansionist moves in the region, asked the signatories of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne for a change in the way the straits are monitored. It said circumstances had changed and requested full authority. After negotiations with world powers including the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France and others, it was agreed that Turkey would control the straits, as it neighbors Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Georgia on the Black Sea.
Under the accord, Turkey has control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles and the power to regulate the 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.
In wartime, Turkey is authorized to close the straits to all foreign warships or when it is threatened by aggression. It can also refuse transit for merchant ships from countries at war with Turkey and to fortify the straits in case of conflict.
All non-Black Sea countries wishing to send vessels must notify Turkey 15 days in advance, while Black Sea nations must give eight days notification.
The passage is limited to nine warships of a specific aggregate tonnage at any one time, with no ship above 10,000 tons allowed to pass. A non-Black Sea country's ships cannot exceed a total 30,000 tons at any time, and the vessels are allowed to stay in the region no more than 21 days. Black Sea states may transit ships of any tonnage.
Black Sea countries can send submarines through the straits with prior notice, as long as they have been built, purchased or sent for repair outside the Black Sea.
Civil aircraft can be transited along routes authorized by the Turkish government. The accord does not contain restrictions on the passage of aircraft carriers, but Ankara says it has control over that as well.
The 1994 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has prompted calls for a revision of Montreux. But Turkey is not a signatory of the accord due to its longstanding disputes with Greece, so the pact has remained.
In 2008, when Russia recognized the independence of the two Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Ankara rejected U.S. requests to let its warships pass the straits at a time when it depended on Russia for commodities and trade.
During World War II, the Montreux accord prevented the Axis powers from sending naval forces through the straits to attack the Soviet Union.
Since tensions flared over Ukraine, Turkish officials have said only that Montreux is instrumental in keeping regional peace. They have not specified what position Turkey would take in the event of a war.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said Turkey will do what is necessary as a NATO ally if Russia invades, without elaborating. Turkey has forged close cooperation with Moscow on tourism, energy and defense in recent years. Turkey has also sold sophisticated drones to Ukraine and inked a deal to co-produce more, angering Moscow.
Complicating diplomacy, Turkey opposes Russian policies in Syria and Libya even as it forges cooperation on the ground there. It also opposes Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, and its recognition of the Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions in Georgia as independent.
Russia’s decision to recognize two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent is unacceptable, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Turkey has sent clear messages regarding the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, urging common sense and for both sides to adhere to international law, Erdoğan also said, as he called President Vladimir Putin’s recognition of Ukraine’s separatist regions “unacceptable.”
The president canceled a planned trip to Guinea-Bissau and returned home from Africa early to participate in an online meeting with NATO leaders on Wednesday. Erdoğan was on a three-day trip with top cabinet members to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, and had been scheduled to return to Turkey on Wednesday.
Erdoğan also told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday that Turkey opposed any decision targeting Ukraine's territorial integrity after Russia said it was recognizing two regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.
The move by Putin has prompted the United States and European Union to mull potential sanctions against Russia. Turkey, which has a maritime border to Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea, opposes sanctions in principle.
In a statement, the Turkish presidency said Erdoğan repeated that Turkey found Russia's decision unacceptable during the call with Zelenskyy and called "for all of the resources of diplomacy to be used in the international arena" to resolve the crisis.
Turkey is in a unique bind: it has good ties with both Ukraine and Russia, but also opposes sanctions in principle, just as the West is poised to slap them on Moscow as long promised. Turkey has positioned itself as a neutral mediator for a peaceful resolution to the crisis, offering to host the two countries' leaders or technical level talks in Istanbul or in Ankara.
"Sanctions against Russia are useless. You only postpone the problems," Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın told Die Welt at the weekend, adding "new rules and principles" were needed for both Russia and the West to "feel safe." "Russia feels threatened by NATO," he added.
