Posted on 11/27/2018 6:53:02 AM PST by McGruff
At ANY point, Turkey can declare the Black Sea to be a Turkish lake, and they have done so in the past. They just have never had the military power to keep it that way for very long.
Such is the way of things.
Its a barbarian act by the Russians. In 2016 Iran did the same thing, showing video of captured US sailors with “confessions”.
Oh, Russia gets to just determine how to rewrite an agreement that is already signed?
Is Moscow paying you a salary or what?
It’s not quite international waters, but not quite “Russian waters” either.
Russian and Ukraine made an agreement to consider the sea both of their countries’ internal waters, and to share access between them. Russia has just decided that it doesn’t want to uphold that agreement anymore, probably because they figure nobody will do anything to stop them.
“Russian and Ukraine made an agreement to consider the sea both of their countries’ internal waters, and to share access between them. Russia has just decided that it doesn’t want to uphold that agreement anymore, probably because they figure nobody will do anything to stop them.”
Not true.
They signed a TREATY saying they would hare it for commercial traffic, subject to inspection by either side. And that no military vessels would be allowed in except by mutual agreement.
Then Ukraine unilaterally sailed navy boats toward the strait and tried to enter.
I have to call bs on this. The treaty is online show me anywhere it says Ukraine has to get Russian permission for military vessels to enter the Azov. Russians have brought their naval ships in, did they get permission?
The treaty says “mutual agreement”.
The other half dozen countries on the Black Sea might have something to say about that.
Whatever questions exist claiming either provocation (Ukraine) or aggression (Russia), showing a video of these men “confessing” is barbaric and outrageous.
You are right that Russia and Ukraine have the 2003 treaty and even without it they are both parties to United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which means the Right of Innocent Passage applies and it is illegal for Russia to block the strait.
“Then Ukraine unilaterally sailed navy boats toward the strait and tried to enter.”
If what you say is true, then there wouldn’t have been any Russian military ships there to fire on them, unless the Russians had already unilaterally violated the agreement.
Anyway, what you say isn’t even true since the 2003 agreement says:
“4) Mercantile vessels and other state non-commercial vessels flying the flags of the Russian Federation and the Ukraine have free navigation in the sea of Azov and the strait of Kerch.”
Military vessels are of course “state non-commercial vessels”.
It was a Russian Coast Guard vessel that fired.
Please provide a like for the quote you provided.
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