Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called his office and senior officials to an unscheduled meeting on Monday after a group of retired Navy admirals criticized the government’s position at a major international convention in an action that was seen as a challenge straight to Erdogan’s authority.
Erdogan’s communications director Fahrettin Altun on Sunday accused former admirals of insinuating that the government should be overthrown and said a public prosecutor was initiating an investigation into the incident. The cabinet will meet at 3 pm local time, followed by a meeting with AK Parti’s central executive committee, in power, at 6 pm.
The group of former admirals said in a joint statement on Saturday that it was a misguided government policy to question the future of the so-called Montreux Convention, saying that the 1936 treaty is a guarantee of peace in the Black Sea, which Turkey borders on. Russia and Ukraine.
The admirals issued their statement shortly after Parliament President Mustafa Sentop suggested that Erdogan had the power to withdraw from the treaty if he wanted to, although he later stepped back, saying he was trying to ask a question about the president’s powers and not on a specific political agenda. His comments on the Montreux agreement rekindled a discussion on the Istanbul Channel, multi-billions to build a new strait in Istanbul to bypass the Bosphorus.
The statement by the ex-admirals “has no other purpose than to damage the democracy and motivation and morale of the Turkish Armed Forces”, according to a statement from the Turkish Ministry of Defense. “We believe that the Turkish justice system will take the necessary measures,” said the ministry.
Erdogan says warships can bypass the 1936 treaty with the planned channel
Critics of Erdogan argue that the canal would be an environmental catastrophe and render Turkey’s largest city uninhabitable. Opposition parties have also said that the treaty will keep Turkey out of potential conflicts in the future. The convention limits travel within the Black Sea to 21 days for ships that do not belong to coastal states and prevents the passage of all aircraft carriers.
(President Erdogan’s decision to hold a meeting was added to the title and the first paragraph.)