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Ships are passing smoothly through the Turkish straits to the Black Sea despite heightened safety concerns, two Turkish government officials told Reuters on Sunday, after Bloomberg reported a day earlier that Ankara had restricted commercial ship traffic entering the Black Sea following attacks on vessels there, including on Turkish-owned ships.
The officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Türkiye had implemented some temporary measures because it had been "highly uncomfortable" about security for some time, but that passage remained clear under the conditions of the Montreux Convention.
Türkiye resumed allowing ships to transit its straits toward the Black Sea following unexplained delays for some vessels amid heightened security risks in the area, Bloomberg reported.
The crude oil tanker Aegean Dream entered the Dardanelles Strait on Sunday after waiting in the area since Thursday, signaling its destination as the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal in Russia's Novorossiysk, according to ship-tracking data.
The container vessel Mehmet Kahveci A also passed through the waterway early Sunday, signaling Novorossiysk, Bloomberg reported.
Türkiye's Directorate General of Coastal Safety had told some ships bound for Russian and Ukrainian ports in recent days that it was not currently issuing transit permits for such voyages, Bloomberg reported Saturday.
The delays came after Türkiye's government became increasingly vocal about attacks on merchant shipping in the Black Sea, several of which have targeted Turkish-owned or -flagged vessels.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Saturday that Ankara had conveyed to Moscow and Kyiv that they should declare a moratorium on their attacks in the Black Sea.
Türkiye has issued repeated warnings to Moscow and Kyiv over the attacks, urging both sides to take measures to ensure navigational safety in the area.
"The conflict has spread across the whole Black Sea," Fidan said in an overnight interview with the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA).
"To begin with, they targeted the ports and the military ships. Now, they are attacking all commercial shipping without distinction," he added, saying ships belonging to Türkiye or flying the Turkish flag were among those targeted.
Fidan called for "the setting up of a mechanism allowing a moratorium to be declared."
He said Türkiye had already presented several measures on the matter to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and was putting them into effect, noting, "We have several measures regarding this matter that we presented to our president. We are putting them into effect."
Fidan disclosed that Ukraine had already put forward a relevant proposal for such a mechanism, which Türkiye passed on to Russia, and that Ankara was awaiting Moscow's response. Commenting on prospects for ending the wider war, Fidan acknowledged that neither side is currently inclined to make concessions while both retain the military capability to continue operations.
Türkiye had already denounced Black Sea drone attacks on two Turkish civilian vessels, in which some crew members were injured.
The 1936 Montreux Convention on the Regime of the Straits gives Türkiye control over the Bosphorus and Dardanelles and the power to regulate the transit of naval warships. It also guarantees the free passage of civilian vessels in peacetime and restricts the passage of ships not belonging to Black Sea countries.
Türkiye, which has NATO's second-largest army, has maintained relations with both Kyiv and Moscow since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia while providing military support, including from its own inventory, to Ukraine.
The episode is the latest in a string of attacks on Turkish-linked vessels in the Black Sea in recent weeks, part of a broader escalation in attacks on ports, grain terminals and commercial shipping between Russia and Ukraine that has repeatedly drawn Turkish protest and mediation efforts.
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