Why Turkey calling it ‘war’ in Ukraine matters for the Black Sea

[rebewranger]

Why Turkey calling it ‘war’ in Ukraine matters for the Black Sea
Experts say Turkey, a NATO member, is in a difficult position, caught between supporting a friend in Ukraine, but also avoiding escalating tension with Russia.
By   JUSTIN KATZ
on February 27, 2022 at 3:06 PM

The Russian Navy’s Kilo-class submarine Rostov-na-Donu B-237 transits the Bosphorus Strait en route to the Black Sea on February 13, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)

CORRECTION: This report was updated Feb. 28, 2022 at 2:10 pm ET to correct the name of the Turkish Foreign Minister.

WASHINGTON: Turkey’s foreign minister today said his government now views the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as a “war.” It’s a declaration that has consequences beyond semantics that could lead to the country more strictly limiting Russia’s access to the Black Sea, depending on how Turkey plays a delicate geopolitical hand.

“Is this a conflict or a war? We decided on that. Article 19 of the Montreux Convention is very clear. This is a war,” the country’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a live interview to CNN Turk.

The Montreux Convention dates back to 1936 and is an international agreement that gave Turkey exclusive control over the only canals in and out of the Black Sea, a body of water to Turkey’s north with extensive coastlines in both southern Russia and southern Ukraine.

https://breakingdefense.com/2022/02/why-turkey-calling-it-war-in-ukraine-matters-for-the-black-sea/

[Kamaji]

The punch-line:

“If a war exists but Turkey is not a party to it, Article 19 of the Montreux Convention requires Turkey to close the strait to warships of all belligerent states,” Cornell Overfield, an expert at the Center for Naval Analyses told Breaking Defense earlier this week. CNA is a federally-funded research and development center that also provides advice directly to the Pentagon.

[dfwgator]

Great, we're going to get dragged into a war by freakin' Turkey.

[EdinVA]

So how does one go about blocking a fleet of navel vessals?
Aircraft carriers, battleships, crusers etc.... you go ahead, I'll watch

[The_Reader_David]

So how does one go about blocking a fleet of navel vessals?
Aircraft carriers, battleships, crusers etc.... you go ahead, I'll watch

Actually, it's simple if the country that controls them doesn't want a war with you, and there are various ways to do it.  Even if they're willing to fight, when the water way is narrow enough, sinking the first few ships suffices to deny access to the lot of them.