Turkey’s complex relations with Russia have not gotten widespread attention but with Ukraine being invaded by Russia and the rapid developments that have been taking place in Europe, all that seems to be changing because of the geographical location of Turkey.
The Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits are in the spotlight now. Both the straits are under the control of Turkey and are strategically important routed as they link the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The borders of Turkey exist on both the sides of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus straits which has given Ankara almost full control over international access to the Black Sea. Turkey has now announced its decision to implement the Montreux Convention. This is an international convention on the naval passage that is responsible for regulating the maritime traffic through the Black Sea that has to pass through the two strategic straits under Turkey’s control.
The aim of implementing this convention is to restrain the movement of Russian warships between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. as written in his paper by Andrew M. Hascher, he talks about the strategic importance these straits hold. He wrote that the Modern maritime shipping in the Black Sea along with the Turkish straits was responsible for a wide variety of goods that were brought to the international market. The most notable was the South Caucasus region, Turkey, and the energy products of Russia. Oil and natural gas were being brought from the Caspian Sea via the pipelines and were then transit the Black Sea in both ships and the pipelines further.
This route aside from being an important global maritime shipping route, particularly for Russia, is also directly linked with the naval power of Russia. The nation’s only warm-water naval ports are all located on the Black Sea so, in order to project its naval powers effectively, the Russians must not only exert control over the sea but also have to get unrestricted access to both the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits.
These straits are the only maritime passage through which the ports in the Black Sea can access the Mediterranean Sea and the waters beyond and these are under the control of Turkey. When the invasion of Ukraine started last week, the ambassador to Turkey had appealed to the government of Turkey to close its important straits to Russian warships and to invoke the provisions of the Montreaux Convention of 1936 but Turkey had denied as doing so would mean that they had officially recognised the invasion as a war.
On February 27, the Foreign Minister of Turkey had then officially recognised the invasion as war which provided Turkey with the grounds for the implementation of the convention in regard to the military vessels of Russia. Turkey has also sent military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. President Zelensky had thanked the Foreign Minister for his support and said that this ban on the passage of the Russian warships was very significant for Ukraine.
