Ankara: We will not participate in anti-Russian sanctions.
Stressing that the country did not participate in Western sanctions against Russia, the Turkish foreign minister said that Russia had withdrawn its request for the passage of ships not registered in the black fleet through Turkey.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşo .lu said his country was unwilling to participate in sanctions against Russia.
“As a matter of principle, we did not participate in such sanctions in the general sense,” Çavuşo .lu told HaberTurk. “We have no intention of joining the sanctions.”
According to the Anatolia news agency, he referred to the Montreux Convention, the 1936 agreement on the management of the Turkish Straits, and said that Ankara had sent official announcements about its position to the war-torn countries.
“Russia has agreed to withdraw the request of those ships that cross our strait that are not registered in the Black Sea Fleet,” the Turkish foreign minister said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky had previously called on Turkey to close the Bosphorus and Dardanelles to Russian ships to accompany Kiev in the face of Russian military operations.
Follow the moment-by-moment report of developments in Ukraine here.
Following the recent moves by the West near the Russian border, Putin ordered a special military operation in Ukraine on Thursday, March 26, and European countries, instead of de-escalating tensions in the past few days, took drastic measures against Russia and EU member states. They closed their airspace to Russian flights.
