Home > Current Affairs News > CHP Party Assembly Member Erdem shares thoughts on 'NATO naval base' and its consequences: It must absolutely not be accepted

CHP Party Assembly Member Erdem shares thoughts on 'NATO naval base' and its consequences: It must absolutely not be accepted

Following the Ministry of National Defense's post, which suggested plans to station a NATO Maritime Component Command in the Bosphorus, reactions and warnings have emerged one after another. CHP Party Assembly Member Bahadır Erdem also issued an important warning.

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In a statement, the Ministry of National Defense (MSB) provided the following information: “Multinational Force-Ukraine Operational Headquarters Commander Major General Jean-Pierre Fague (France) and Deputy Commander Major General Richard Stewart Charles Bell (United Kingdom), along with their accompanying delegation, visited the Maritime Component Command planned to be stationed in Anadolukavağı/Beykoz.” Turkey will continue the Task Force Command it assumed in 2024 until 2028.

While Istanbul Strait Commander Rear Admiral Özgür Erken, Mine Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Birol Orak, and Maritime Component Command personnel also attended the visit, the phrase “visited the Maritime Component Command planned to be stationed in Anadolukavağı/Beykoz” in the post was interpreted as the establishment of a NATO Naval Base.

Reactions to this statement by the MSB followed one another, with comments suggesting that this step would put the rights we have gained under the Montreux Convention at risk of being lost.

CHP Party Assembly Member Bahadır Erdem also issued what he described as a 'historic warning' in a statement on his social media account.

Erdem used the following expressions in his post:

"Historic Warning:

The Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits is the most important international agreement our country has concluded after the Treaty of Lausanne, ensuring that Turkey is the 'sole sovereign state' over the Istanbul and Çanakkale Straits.

The Montreux Convention shows all states that do not have a coast on the Black Sea, as well as those that do, including Russia, that Turkey is the sole sovereign over these two important waterways.

The erosion of this exclusive right of sovereignty that Montreux provides to Turkey has been the unchanging dream and goal of all Western states, especially the USA, for years.

For years, the sole goal of states without a coast on the Black Sea has been to implement a new international regulation that allows their ships to pass through the straits into the Black Sea without being subject to any limitations arising from Montreux regarding size, tonnage, the weapons and other cargo they carry, and to ensure their ships can remain in the Black Sea without time restrictions. 

Developments that serve this purpose not only harm the indispensable right of sovereignty that Turkey possesses, but also pit Turkey and Russia against each other. 

A NATO base to be stationed in the Straits means the erosion of Montreux and the loss of the exclusive right of sovereignty that Turkey possesses.

Using the war that the USA and Israel have started against Iran as an excuse, this imposition by the USA and NATO causes irreversible damage to Turkey's superior rights over the Straits in terms of international law. 

These impositions must absolutely not be accepted.

The only way to protect our country from the war and destruction created by the USA and Israel in our neighboring region is not a NATO base in the straits, but for Turkey to increase its own air defense systems and power.

Establishing a NATO base in Istanbul, the apple of our country's and the world's eye, is contrary to the international interests that Turkey possesses."