Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said his country had canceled or postponed some NATO exercises planned in the Black Sea because of the requirements of the Montreux Convention due to tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Çavuşoğlu said, “If we participate in sanctions, we will not be able to play the mediating role we have today. We have applied the Montreux Convention to warships, but we must keep the airspace open, this corridor. ” “There are requests from Russia about the passage of ships from the USA out of Montreux. We canceled or postponed NATO exercises planned according to the agreement. We play an important role and fulfill our obligations. ”
In a statement that Ankara had said at the outset that it would “in principle only participate in UN sanctions”, he said, “Now, everyone can impose sanctions on everyone. This is their job. We choose the role of mediator and we try to soften the situation. This is the position we accept in the European Union and in the world.
“The fact that Turkey is not associated with the sanctions imposed on Russia does not mean that it is possible to avoid them through Ankara,” he said.
Source: “Anatolia”
Source: Arabic RT
