Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened his cabinet and top officials for an unscheduled meeting on Monday after a group of retired Navy admirals criticized the government’s stance on a major international convention in a move seen as a direct challenge for Erdogan’s authority.
Erdogan’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, accused the former admirals on Sunday of insinuating that the government should be overthrown and said a prosecutor was launching an investigation into the incident. The cabinet will meet at 3 p.m. local time, followed by a meeting with the central governing committee of the ruling AK Parti at 6 p.m.
The group of former admirals said in a joint statement Saturday that it was misguided government policy to question the future of the so-called Montreux Convention, and said the 1936 treaty is a guarantee of peace in the Black Sea, to which Turkey is committed. borders. with Russia and Ukraine.
The admirals issued their statement shortly after Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop suggested that Erdogan had the power to withdraw from the treaty if he wanted to, although he later returned saying he was trying to say something about the powers of the president and not about a particular policy agenda. . His comments on the Montreux Accord have revived the discussion about Canal Istanbul, Erdogan’s multi-billion project to build a new strait through Istanbul to bypass the Bosphorus.
The statement by the former admirals “serves no other purpose than harming democracy and the motivation and morale of the Turkish armed forces,” said a statement by the Turkish Ministry of Defense. “We believe that the Turkish legal system will take the necessary measures,” the ministry said.
Erdogan says warships may bypass the 1936 treaty with planned channel
Erdogan’s critics claim the canal would be an environmental disaster and make Turkey’s largest city unlivable. Opposition parties also said the treaty will keep Turkey out of potential conflict in the future. The convention limits deployment in the Black Sea to 21 days for non-coastal ships and blocks the passage of all aircraft carriers.
President Erdogan’s decision to hold a meeting has been added to the heading and first paragraph.