The answer seems to be "no" - but....
Ukraine has appealed to Turkey to block Russian warships from passing through the Dardanelles and Bosporus, which lead to the Black Sea, after Moscow on Thursday launched a full-blown assault on Ukraine from land, air and sea.
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Turkey cannot stop Russian warships accessing the Black Sea via its straits, as Ukraine has requested, due to a clause in an international pact that allows vessels to return to their home base, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu said Friday.
However, under the 1936 Montreux Convention, Turkey has control over the straits and can limit the passage of warships during wartime or if threatened, but the request has put the NATO member in a difficult position as it tries to manage its Western commitments and close ties with Russia.
(pipanews.com February 26, 2022) Turkey refused to block access of Russian ships to the Black Sea at the request of Ukraine.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu on Friday said Turkey can't block Russian warships from Black Sea via Dardanelles, Bosphorus straits. As per 1936 Montreux Convention, Russia has the right to return ships to their home base, in this case Black Sea, added Çavusoglu. This comes after Ukraine requested Turkey to stop the warships amid a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Explaining the clause, the minister said that even if Turkey decided after a legal process to accept Ukraine's request and close the straits to Russian warships, they would only be prevented from traveling in the other direction, away from their home base into the Mediterranean. "If countries involved in the war make a request to return their vessels to their bases, that needs to be allowed."
The minister added that Turkish legal experts were still trying to determine whether the conflict in Ukraine could be defined as a war, which would allow the convention mandates to be invoked.
Ukraine has denied that it refused negotiations with Russia, as claimed by the Kremlin on Saturday.
Head of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, Mikhail Podolyak said it was untrue and that Russia had set out “unacceptable conditions [and] ultimatum demands”.
On Saturday, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Putin ordered a halt to the Russian advance for negotiations, but Ukraine refused them.
“Ukraine, of course, did not refuse negotiations. But precisely from negotiations, which, by the way, have not happened yet. Ukraine and president Zelensky categorically renounces any unacceptable conditions or ultimatum demands from the Russian side,” Podolyak said.
The UK home secretary, Priti Patel, has cancelled the visas of a Belarusian basketball team that was due to play in Newcastle on Sunday night.
Belarus has been an ally of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and was used as a base to launch attacks from Ukraine’s north. The US and UK are among countries that have issued sanctions against the country.
I have cancelled the visas of the Belarusian Men’s Basketball Team who were due to play in Newcastle tomorrow night.
The UK will not welcome the national sports teams of those countries who are complicit in Putin’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of #Ukraine.
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