The Question of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles Straits
The Question of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles Straits

Summary/Abstract: The struggle for control of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, strategic access points on the only waterway between the Black Sea and the oceans of the world, has a long history. It has become even more topical in the modern age, as an effect of the increase in economic power and the expansionist tendencies of some states, bearing the imprint of the flourishing or decline of some empires whose fate depended on the strategic situation at the junction of Europe and Asia. However, 86 years ago, in a conciliatory setting, a diplomatic instrument was signed in Montreux, emblematic in the evolution of international law, based on a real spirit of harmonization of political, economic and military interests, which authorized the transit of ships and aircraft through the area of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles straits. Still in force today, the MontreuxConvention signed on 20 July 1936, which put Ankara in possession of the keys to the straits, is one of the long-lasting international agreements, limiting the number and tonnage of vessels and, in the case of warships, the duration of their presence in the area, a fact that, in the almost nine decades, has producedeffects on the interests of some states, be they Black Sea littoral states or not.The current war in Ukraine, launched on 24 February 2022, brings back in the diplomatic debates the document whose articles relating to the conflict situation have not been invoked since the end of the Second World War,although, over time, interested parties have strongly advocated for the revisionof the Montreux Convention.

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