In 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne had demilitarised the Dardanelles and opened the Straits to unrestricted civilian and military traffic, under the supervision of the International Straits Commission of the League of Nations. By the late 1930s, the strategic situation in the Mediterranean had altered with the rise of Fascist Italy, which controlled the Greek-inhabited Dodecanese islands off the west coast of Turkey and had constructed fortifications on Rhodes, Leros and Kos.
In the note, Turkish foreign minister Tevfik Rüştü Aras explained that the international situation had changed greatly since 1923.
In 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne had demilitarised the Dardanelles and opened the Straits to unrestricted civilian and military traffic, under the supervision of the International Straits Commission of the League of Nations. By the late 1930s, the strategic situation in the Mediterranean had altered with the rise of Fascist Italy, which controlled the Greek-inhabited Dodecanese islands off the west coast of Turkey and had constructed fortifications on Rhodes, Leros and Kos.
However, Turkey's longstanding refusal to sign UNCLOS has meant that Montreux remains in force without further amendments. The safety of vessels passing through the Bosporus has become a major concern in recent years as the volume of traffic has increased greatly since the Convention was signed: from 4,500 in 1934 to 49,304 by 1998.
Although Turkey was not permitted to refortify the Straits, it nonetheless did so secretly. In April 1935, the Turkish government dispatched a lengthy diplomatic note to the signatories of the Treaty of Lausanne proposing a conference on the agreement of a new regime for the Straits and requested that the League of Nations authorise the reconstruction of the Dardanelles forts.
The Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits is a 1936 agreement that gives Turkey control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and regulates the transit of naval warships.
The terms of the Convention have been a source of controversy over the years, most notably about the Soviet Union's military access to the Mediterranean Sea. Signed on 20 July 1936 at the Montreux Palace in Switzerland, the Convention permitted Turkey to remilitarise the Straits.
It went into effect on 9 November 1936 and was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on 11 December 1936.
Turkey was therefore prepared The response to the note was generally favourable, and Australia, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Romania, the Soviet Union, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Yugoslavia agreed to attend negotiations at Montreux in Switzerland, which began on 22 June 1936.
The agreement was ratified by all of the conference attendees with the exception of Germany, which had not been a signatory to the Treaty of Lausanne, and with reservations by Japan, and came into force on 9 November 1936. Britain's willingness to make concessions has been attributed to a desire to avoid Turkey being driven to ally itself with, or fall under the influence of, Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini.
In 1936, it was common for battleships to carry observation aircraft.
Greece’s right to militarise them was recognized by Turkey, in accordance with the letter sent to the Greek Prime Minister on 6 May 1936 by the Turkish Ambassador in Athens at the time, Roussen Esref, upon instructions from his Government.
The regulations were revised in November 1998 to address Russian concerns. ==References== ==Sources== An English translation of the convention Anthony Rocco De Luca, The Montreux Conference of 1936: A Diplomatic Study of Anglo-Soviet Rivalry.
As early as 1939, Joseph Stalin sought to reopen the Straits Question and proposed joint Turkish and Soviet control of the Straits, complaining that "a small state [i.e.
Repeated protests from Moscow and London led to the Turkish government banning the movements of "suspicious" Axis ships with effect from June 1944 after a number of German auxiliary ships had been permitted to transit the Straits. === Aircraft carriers === Although the Montreux Convention is cited by the Turkish government as prohibiting aircraft carriers from transiting the straits, the treaty actually contains no explicit prohibition on aircraft carriers.
The Soviets returned to the issue in 1945 and 1946, demanding a revision of the Montreux Convention at a conference excluding most of the Montreux signatories, a permanent Soviet military presence and joint control of the Straits.
The Soviets returned to the issue in 1945 and 1946, demanding a revision of the Montreux Convention at a conference excluding most of the Montreux signatories, a permanent Soviet military presence and joint control of the Straits.
Soviet pressure expanded into full demands to revise the Montreux Convention, which led to the Turkish Straits crisis of 1946, which led to Turkey abandoning its policy of neutrality.
In 1947, it became the recipient of US military and economic assistance under the Truman Doctrine of containment and joined the NATO alliance, along with Greece, in 1952. ===United States=== The passage of US warships through the Straits also raised controversy, as the convention forbids the transit of non-Black Sea nations' warships with guns of a calibre larger than eight inches (203 mm).
In 1947, it became the recipient of US military and economic assistance under the Truman Doctrine of containment and joined the NATO alliance, along with Greece, in 1952. ===United States=== The passage of US warships through the Straits also raised controversy, as the convention forbids the transit of non-Black Sea nations' warships with guns of a calibre larger than eight inches (203 mm).
In the 1960s, the US sent warships carrying 420 mm calibre ASROC missiles through the Straits, prompting Soviet protests.
Stanford University, 1973. Nihan Ünlü, The Legal Regime of the Turkish Straits, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2002.
In January 1994, the Turkish government adopted new "Maritime Traffic Regulations for the Turkish Straits and the Marmara Region".
However, Turkey's longstanding refusal to sign UNCLOS has meant that Montreux remains in force without further amendments. The safety of vessels passing through the Bosporus has become a major concern in recent years as the volume of traffic has increased greatly since the Convention was signed: from 4,500 in 1934 to 49,304 by 1998.
The regulations were revised in November 1998 to address Russian concerns. ==References== ==Sources== An English translation of the convention Anthony Rocco De Luca, The Montreux Conference of 1936: A Diplomatic Study of Anglo-Soviet Rivalry.
Stanford University, 1973. Nihan Ünlü, The Legal Regime of the Turkish Straits, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2002.
However, the Kanal’s potential ability to end nearly a century of limitations imposed by the Montreux regime was never overlooked by both commentators and politicians, and in January 2018, then Turkish Prime Minister and former Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım announced that the Kanal would in fact not be subject to the Montreux Convention.
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