Çavuşoğlu, speaking to HaberTürk television broadcasting, stated that Russia wanted passage through the Turkish Straits on February 27-28th for warships that were not registered to its Black Sea fleet. Turkey asked Russia to withdraw its request. Russia withdrew the request.
Çavuşoğlu reminded that vessels could not cross the Straits and added, “There is an exception. If that warship says it will return to its base in the Black Sea, to its registered base or port before the war, it is mainly used for civilian ships, and then we cannot prevent the passage of that warship because it will return to its base. It was said that four ships would arrive on February 27-28. Three of them are not registered to bases in the Black Sea. We said, ‘Don’t send these ships. We informed the countries that are party to Montreux. We declared them officially.
“We said amicably not to send these ships to Russia. At that time, there was no decision whether there would be a war or not,” said Çavuşoğlu. If they had come in such a situation, one of them could have passed, three of them would not have passed,” he said.
