Bosporus
The Bosporus, the strait separating the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, is generally viewed as the boundary between Europe and Asia. About 30 kilometers long, it varies in width from 3,550 to 700 meters and in depth from 37 to 124 meters. It is the only year-round sea outlet for Black Sea countries. The Dardanelles extends for 61 kilometers and links the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea; its average depth is 55 meters, with a maximum of 105. Together the Bosporus and Dardanelles are known as the Turkish Straits.
Heavy pollution in the Black Sea has had adverse effects on the marine life and ecology of the Turkish Straits and the Sea of Marmara, and increasing maritime traffic through the straits has posed safety and pollution concerns for Turkey. The problem is more acute for the Bosporus, as strong currents and narrowness in several parts of the strait make navigation hazardous. At the start of the twenty-first century, an average of 50,000 commercial vessels and 6,500 oil tankers passed through the Bosporus annually; an estimated 15 percent of vessels carry dangerous cargo. Thousands of smaller passenger boats and ferries also use the Bosporus. The strait is four times as busy as the Panama Canal and three times as busy as the Suez Canal. Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, with a population of over 11 million, is situated on both sides of the Bosporus and is vulnerable to the hazards of increasing Black Sea traffic.
Under the 1936 Montreux Treaty, navigation through the Bosporus and Dardanelles is unrestricted for commercial vessels except in wartime. Accidents in the straits and the growing danger of environmental and safety hazards have led Turkey to adopt new rules to enhance the safety of traffic. In 1994 the Turkish government issued regulations governing shipping in the straits, including speed limits for large vessels and the requirement that ships inform Turkish authorities in advance if they carry hazardous cargo. Other regulations require large oil tankers to be accompanied by tugboats in case of breakdown. Not all ships abide by the new regulations: Russia, Greece, and other users of the straits have cited the freedom of passage provided by the Montreux Treaty and questioned Turkey's authority to introduce unilateral measures governing shipping through the straits.
Shipping through the straits has a political dimension as well. In a bid to reduce oil shipping through the straits in the future and with the support of the United States, Turkey strongly backed the construction of a pipeline from the Azerbaijani port of Baku to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Greece and Bulgaria promoted an alternative oil pipeline plan involving shipping Caspian Sea oil from the Russian port of Novorossiysk to the Bulgarian port of Burgas on the west coast of the Black Sea. This pipeline would link Burgas with the Greek Aegean port of Alexandroupolis, bypassing the Turkish Straits. Whether either pipeline will be constructed is unknown. Although pipelines might relieve the passage of oil through the Bosporus and Dardanelles, Turkey's anxieties about the volume of maritime traffic and ecological damage persist.
Further Reading
Guchi, Yucel. (2000) "The Legal Regulation of Passage through the Turkish Straits." Mediterranean Quarterly 2, 3 (summer): 87–99.
Ozturk, Bayram, and Nesrin Algan, eds. (2001) Problems of Regional Seas, 2001: Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Problems of Regional Seas. Istanbul, Turkey: Turkish Maritime Research Foundation.
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