Just days before Turkey's president is set to visit Ukraine, Ankara has reassured Moscow with a rare public display of support to a key maritime treaty safeguarding Russia's rights in the Black Sea, amid fears of a looming war between Russia and Ukraine.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar stressed Ankara’s commitment to the 1936 Montreux Convention, one of the founding treaties of the modern Turkish Republic that strictly restricts NATO forces' access to the Black Sea. “We have always maintained that the status provided by Montreux is advantageous for all parties,” Turkey’s defense chief said in his video address to the army’s top brass on Jan. 31. “It is out of the question to give up on [the treaty] under today's conditions.”
