Ukraine has asked Turkey to close the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to Russian ships and wants sanctions to be imposed on Moscow, the Ukrainian ambassador to Ankara said on Thursday, after the Russian launch air and ground assaults on son next to.
Turkey, a member of NATO, Ukraine, which shares a maritime border of the Black Sea with Ukraine and Russia, oppose sanctions but called on Russia steps against Ukraine unacceptable, while offering to mediate. Under a 1936 pact, Ankara controls over the strait and can limit the passage of warships if it is threatened or in time of war.
“We call for the air space, the Bosphorus Strait and the Dardanelles will be closed. We passed on our relevance demand in Turkish side. At the same time we want penalties imposed on the Russian side”, Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar told a news conference in Ankara.
On Wednesday, Bodnar told Reuters that Kyiv given the presence of Russian warships in the Black Sea coasts near Ukraine as a menaceand that Ukraine would ask Ankara to consider closing its two straits to Russian ships in the event ofinvasion from Moscow.
Earlier this month, six Russian warships and a submarine passed through the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits to the Black Sea for what Moscow called naval exercises near Ukrainian waters.
Asked about the presence of Russian warships near Ukrainian borders, Bodnar told Reuters in an interview that ships posed “a great danger” for Kyiv adding Russian Naval Concentration in the Black Sea was “crushing”.
“We believe that, in Case of a wide military invasion or departure of military Activities against Ukraine – when the war becomes not only de facto but de jure – we will ask the Turks government consider the possibility of closure of the Black Sea Strait for the aggressor state,” he said.
Under the Montreux Convention of 1936, Turkey, a member of NATO, controls over the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, connecting the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The pact gives Ankara the power settle transit of naval warships and to close the strait to foreign warships in time of war and when threatened.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday that Turkey, which has good ties with both Ukraine and Russia, could not abandon its ties with one or the other country and that it would be necessary steps for ensure reports remain intact.
“It’s not possible for us to abandon one or the other (country),” he said and called on Ukraine and Russia to resume talks, while urging NATO to ‘determine its position’ and ‘do what it wants’ after summit on Wednesday.
“Our goal is to take such a step that, God willing, we sort this out out without giving up either one.”
While building close collaboration with Russia on defense and energy, Ankara has also sold sophisticated drones to Ukraine and signed a more co-production deal that angered Moscow.
Turkey opposes Russian policy in Syria and Libya, son annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its recognition in 2008 of two Georgian regions.
Erdogan also said to son Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that Turkey did not recognize steps against The territorial integrity of Ukraine, after Russia recognized two breakaway regions in Eastern Ukraine.
In a call Erdoğan told Putin that military conflict in the region would not benefit anyone and reiterates son offer to help solve crisis, son office noted in a statement, adding that Erdoğan said he appreciated Putin’s close cooperation on regional issues and wanted to continue this.
“President Erdoğan, who renewed son call for the issue to be resolved through dialoguesaid that it was important to put diplomacy first and that (Turkey) maintained its constructive position in NATO too.
Putin expressed his disappointment in Erdoğan face to what he called attempts by Washington and NATO to ignore Russia’s security demands, Interfax said citing the Kremlin.
