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Turkey exercises 1936 pact, blocks warships from entering Black Sea

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Turkey is warning countries against sending warships through the Black Sea.

Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, the country has control over the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits that connect the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

The pact allows Turkey to limit the passage of warships during wartime and in cases where Turkey is threatened.

Turkey considers the situation in Ukraine a war, so the country decided to exercise the Montreux Convention.

The Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told state-run news agency, Anadolu that the country has not received requests for navy ships to cross the Turkish straits since last week, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

Çavuşoğlu’s announcement came on the same day that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the country intends to maintain its relations with Russia and Ukraine, according to Al Jazeera.

Ergodan said he considers Russia’s attack on Ukraine “unacceptable.”