- Turkish Straits
The term Turkish Straits ( _tr. Türk Boğazları) in northwestern
Turkey refers to the two narrowstrait s that connect theSea of Marmara with the Aegean arm of theMediterranean Sea on the one side and theBlack Sea on the other. They are conventionally considered as the boundary between the continents ofEurope andAsia . The Straits are aninternational waterway , governed since 1936 by the Montreux Convention.*The
Istanbul Strait ("Boğaziçi" or "İstanbul Boğazı"), about 30 km long and only 700 m wide, connects the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea in the north. It runs right through the city ofIstanbul , making it a city located on two continents. It is crossed by two suspension bridges (Bosphorus Bridge andFatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge ), with a rail tunnel currently under construction (Marmaray ).
*TheÇanakkale Strait ("Çanakkale Boğazı"), 68 km long and 1.2 km wide, connects the Sea of Marmara with the Mediterranean in the southwest, near the city ofÇanakkale . They were historically also known as theHellespont , and they were the scene of theBattle of Gallipoli during the First World War.The Straits Question
The Straits have been of urgent maritime strategic importance since the
Trojan War was fought near the Aegean entrance. In the declining days of theOttoman Empire the "Straits Question" involved the diplomats of Europe and Turkey.By terms of the
London Straits Convention concluded onJuly 13 th,1841 between theGreat Powers ofEurope — Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Austria and Prussia — the "ancient rule" of theOttoman Empire was re-established by closing the Turkish straits to allwarships whatsoever, barring those of theSultan 'sallies during wartime. It thus benefited British naval power at the expense of Russian as the latter lacked direct access for its navy to the Mediterranean.cite book | title = The Turkish Straits | author = Christos L. Rozakis | publisher = Martinus NijhoffPublishers | year = 1987 | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yJc7HWhF-K8C&pg=PA23&vq=russia&dq=The+Turkish+Straits&source=gbs_search_s&sig=ACfU3U1fPANxD_cQJx14mGVt7O5a5Kp46w | page = 24-25 ]The
treaty is one in a series dealing with access to the Bosporus, theSea of Marmara , and the Dardanelles. It evolved from the secret "Hünkâr İskelesi" (Unkiar Skelessi),1833 , in which the Ottoman Turkey guaranteed exclusive use of the straits to "Black Sea Powers'" (i.e. OttomanTurkey and ImperialRussia ) warships in the case of a general war.The
modern treaty controlling relations is theMontreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits from1936 , which is still in force.ee also
*
List of maritime incidents in the Turkish Straits
*United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
*Marmara Region
*International law References
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