REGULATION OF THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE TURKISH STRAITS

Abstract

The Turkish Straits have all the importance of a vital international waterway, as well as being the key to Istanbul and the meeting-place of Europe and Asia. In several places the Straits are very narrow and therefore technically within the territorial jurisdiction of its riverain power. Their coasts command commercial and strategic communications, not only of the Marmara and Black Seas, but also of the whole Black Sea basin, including southern Russia and the Danube valley. The question of the Straits has been one of the cornerstones of Turkey's relations with the Powers for more than two centuries. The modern problem dates essentially from 1774 when Russia by an international agreement acquired commercial access through the Straits - a right later extended to other states. But the waterway remained closed to non-Turkish warships according to the ancient rule of the Ottoman Empire, which continued to be the law until the end of the First World War.1

References

1. Numan Menemencioğlu's memoirs, Les Détroits vus de la Méditerranée: aperçus, études, souvenirs, pp. 384-393. The author wishes to express appreciation to Osman Streater for his kind permission to refer to the unpublished manuscript of the memoirs of his grand uncle, Numan Menemencioğlu. Also Ahmet Şükrü Esmer, 'The Straits: Crux of World Politics', Foreign Affairs, 25, No. 2, January 1947, pp. 290-294.
2. Full text of the Lausanne Peace Treaty in League of Nations Treaty Series, XXVIII, 1-4 (1924), pp. 114.
3. Menemencioğlu's Memoirs, pp. 51-54. Moreover, see Harry Howard, 'The Straits after the Montreux Convention', Foreign Affairs, 15, No. 4, October 1936, pp. 199-200.
4. Cevat Açıkalın, 'Turkey's International Relations', International Affairs, 23, 1947, pp. 477-479.
5. Menemencioğlu's Memoirs, pp. 83-86. Ibid., pp. 55-76. For the text of the Turkish note see Stephen Heald (ed.), Documents on International Affairs (1936), London, 1938, pp. 645-648.
6. Cabinet Office Papers, Public Record Office, London - henceforth referred to as 'CAB' - 24/262. (36), The Montreux Conference to Consider the Revision of the Straits Convention of Lausanne, Eden, 30 July 1936. Howard (1936), p. 200. CAB 23/85. 52 (36), 15 July 1936. Ibid. Esmer (1947), p. 295. Howard (1936), p. 201.
7. Text of the Montreux Straits Convention in League of Nations Treaty Series, No. 4015, Vol. 173 (1936-1937), pp. 213-241.
8. İsmet İnönü'nün TBMM ve CHP Kurultaylarında Söylev ve Demeçleri (1919-1946) (İsmet İnönü's Speeches and Statements in the Turkish Grand National Assembly and in the Conventions of the People's Republican Party (1919-1946)), Istanbul, 1946, p. 298.

9. Hansard, Commons Vol. CCCXV, col. 1119-1123, Speech by Eden on 27 July 1936.
10. See, for instance, Dankwart Rustow in Roy Macridis (ed.), Foreign Policies in World Politics, New Jersey, 1958, p. 302.
11. Yasemin Dobra-Manço, 'Smithsonian Calls Bosphorus a Disaster Waiting to Happen', Turkish Daily News, 15 December 1998.
12. The official announcement of the regulations was first broadcast on 23 November 1993 and then published in the Official Gazette of 11 January 1994, No. 21815. Some of the provisions of the regulations were amended the same year and these were promulgated in the Official Gazette of 21 June 1994, No. 21967.
13. Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Çetin's statement to Cumhuriyet of 10 June 1994.
14. Malik Mufti, 'Daring and Caution in Turkish Foreign Policy', Middle East Journal, 52, 1998, pp. 38.
15. Mustafa Aydın (ed.), Turkey at the Threshold of 21st Century: Global Encounters and/versus Regional Alternatives, Ankara, 1998, pp. 76 and 92-94. Ibid.
16. Turkish Straits Voluntary Watch Group, Turkish Straits: New Problems, New Solutions, Istanbul, , passim. Ibid. See also Ismail Cem, Turkey in the 21st Century, Nicosia, 2000, pp. 22, 37 and 39 and Faruk
17. Loğoğlu, 'Turkey in the New Century', Turkish Daily News, 10 April 2000.
18. Turkey's Permanent Representative to the United Nations' letter to the UN Secretary-General on the implementation of the Maritime Traffic Regulations for the Turkish Straits of 1 July 1994. UN
19. General Assembly document A/50/809, 8 December 1995. Other regulations to the same effect were adopted after four years and published in the supplement of the Official Gazette of 6 November , No. 23515.
20. Later Article 50 of these last regulations has been repealed and this amendment was promulgated in the Official Gazette of 5 May 1999, No. 23686. Ibid.
21. Full text of the IMO rules and recommendations is in Rapport Annuel sur le Mouvement des Navires à travers les Détroits Turcs (1994), Ministère des Affaires Etrangères de la République de Turquie, Ankara, 1995, pp. 75-83.