{"id":21805,"date":"2015-12-11T10:27:46","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T10:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/key-waterways-become-focus-of-turkish-russian\/"},"modified":"2015-12-11T10:27:30","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T10:27:30","slug":"key-waterways-become-focus-of-turkish-russian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/key-waterways-become-focus-of-turkish-russian\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Waterways Become Focus of Turkish, Russian Tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

{ISTANBUL-The escalating tensions between Moscow and Ankara over last month\u2019s downing of a Russian fighter by Turkish jets is threatening to resurrect an age-old rivalry over access to Turkey\u2019s Bosphorus and Dardanelles waterways.}<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s 30-kilometer Bosphorus waterway, which cuts Istanbul in half, is the gateway from the Black Sea to international waters.<\/p>\n

The waterways are key to both Russian trade, with much of the country’s oil passing through, and its Black Sea navy, in particular the supplying of it bases in Syria.<\/p>\n

Restricting access<\/p>\n

Retired Turkish ambassador Murat Bilhan warns restricting access to the Bosphorus could become an option for Ankara.<\/p>\n

“In case there is an escalating conflict with Russia, then Turkey could use that card because, according to the Montreux Agreement, if Turkey is partied to a conflict, the other side to the conflict would be prevented from passing. But it’s a very dangerous trump card, of course,” Bilhan said.<\/p>\n

Use of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles waterways is guaranteed under the 1936 Montreux Convention.<\/p>\n

Ankara has never blocked access to the straits. But Russian media have accused Turkish authorities of deliberately delaying some ships access; a charge Ankara denies.<\/p>\n

Political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Istanbul\u2019s Suleyman Sah University warned if Ankara uses the straits against Moscow, it carries major risks.<\/p>\n

“It will create a major international tension. But I mean we don’t know how Ankara will be reacting. The stakes are high and open,” Aktar said.<\/p>\n

Montreux Convention<\/p>\n

Observers warn any interference with the use of the straits could result in calls for the Montreux Convention to be rewritten, something Ankara is keen to avoid.<\/p>\n

But tensions were ratcheted up further this week with the appearance of a photo of a Russian sailor on a warship transiting the Bosphorus, shouldering a portable surface-to-air missile.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/figure>\n

SOURCE:VOICE OF AMERICA:[Key Waterways Become Focus of Turkish, Russian Tensions->http:\/\/www.voanews.com\/content\/key-waterways-become-focus-of-turkey-russia-tensions\/3098692.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{ISTANBUL-The escalating tensions between Moscow and Ankara over last month\u2019s downing of a Russian fighter by Turkish jets is threatening to resurrect an age-old rivalry over access to Turkey\u2019s Bosphorus and Dardanelles waterways.} Turkey\u2019s 30-kilometer Bosphorus waterway, which cuts Istanbul in half, is the gateway from the Black Sea to international waters. The waterways are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000070790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2475],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-21805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-voice-of-america"],"bylines":[{"id":2475,"name":"VOICE OF AMERICA","slug":"voice-of-america","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2475,"name":"VOICE OF AMERICA","slug":"voice-of-america","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000070790,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21805.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21805.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21805.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21805.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21805.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21805.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000070790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21805"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=21805"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=21805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}