Some researchers believe that the Convention restricts Russia’s control over the region and has been a major driving force in Moscow’s repeated demands that it be given greater control of the straits, dating as far back as the 1930s during Stalin’s Soviet Union. During peacetime, the agreement guarantees freedom of passage for civilian vessels, including trade vessels, but battleships face certain restrictions. This international agreement that went into effect in July 1936, put to rest the question of who would control these two strategic straits. Then, on February 27, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that the country would now recognise the invasion as “war”, which provides Ankara with the grounds for implementing the Convention with regard to military vessels. Turkey said it could only do so if Ankara officially recognised the invasion as a war. When Russia started its invasion of Ukraine last week, Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey, Vasyl Bodnar, in a television broadcast appealed to the Turkish government to close its key straits to Russian warships, invoking the provisions of the 1936 Montreux Convention. These straits in control of Turkey are the only maritime passage through which Russia’s ports in the Black Sea can access the Mediterranean Sea and the waters beyond. “Because Russia’s only warm-water naval ports are on the Black Sea, in order to effectively project naval power the Russians must not only exert control of the sea, but also have unrestricted access to the Dardanelles and Bosphorus Straits,” Hascher explains. Oil and natural gas are brought from as far away as the Caspian Sea via pipelines, then transit the Black Sea in both ships and further pipelines.”īeyond being an important global maritime shipping route, specifically for Russia, Hascher explains that this route is directly linked with the country’s naval power. Perhaps most notable are the energy products of Russia, the South Caucasus region, and Turkey. Hascher in his paper ‘The Black Sea and the Turkish Straits: Resurgent Strategic Importance in the 21st Century’ writes that “Modern maritime shipping in the Black Sea and Turkish Straits is responsible for a wide variety of goods being brought to the global market. Why is this route important to Russia?Īndrew M. Turkey’s intent in implementing this convention is to limit the movement of Russian warships between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Now, Turkey has announced its decision to implement the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits, an international convention on naval passage that regulates maritime traffic through the Black Sea that has to pass through these two of its strategic straits. Turkey’s borders exist on both sides of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, giving Ankara almost complete control over international access to the Black Sea. Specifically in focus now are the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, under Turkish control, which are strategically important routes because they link the Black Sea with the Mediterranean Sea. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the rapid developments in Europe, that is changing, particularly because of Turkey’s geographical location. When it comes to international affairs in India, Turkey’s complex relations with Russia don’t often get widespread attention.
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