A debate on whether Ankara could scrap a key treaty regulating traffic through the Turkish Straits has been mired in a fresh “coup” clamor in Turkey’s domestic politics, but the issue has far-reaching international implications at a time when the United States and NATO are throwing their weight behind Ukraine in rising tensions with Russia.
On April 4, 104 retired Turkish admirals found themselves under fire for tacitly threatening a coup after they issued an open letter expressing concern over suggestions that Ankara could ditch the 1936 Montreux Convention amid government plans to build an artificial waterway parallel to the Bosporus Strait, which, along with the Dardanelles, forms the link between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Though the coup accusations hijacked the debate, the apprehension of top navy officers, whose careers basically rested on the convention, could hardly be dismissed.
