(1 Mar 2022) Ankara said on Tuesday it would implement an international convention that allows Turkey to shut down the strategic Bosporus Strait to warships of "belligerent countries."
In his Tuesday announcement, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also insisted his country won't give up on its relations with either Russia or Ukraine.
The 1936 Montreux Convention gives Turkey the right to bar warships from using the Dardanelles and the Bosporus strait's during wartime.
Ukraine has asked Turkey to implement the treaty and bar access to Russian warships.
Situated by Istanbul, the Bosporus links the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, where Russia has a coast.
The strait also divides the European and Asian continents.
Several Russian ships have already sailed through the straits to the Black Sea in the past weeks and it was not clear how much of an impact Turkey's decision to close them down would have on the conflict.
The Montreux Convention also provides an exception for Black Sea vessels returning to port.
Turkey has criticized Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine, but has also been trying to balance its close ties to Ukraine with its interests in not upsetting its fragile economic relationship with Russia.
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