Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan summoned his cabinet and top officials to an unplanned meeting on Monday after a group of retired naval admirals criticized the government’s stance on a major international convention in a move seen as a direct challenge to Erdogan authority.
Erdogan’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, on Sunday accused the former admirals of insinuating that the government should be overthrown and said a public prosecutor was launching an investigation into the incident. Cabinet meets at 15:00 local time, followed by a meeting with the ruling AK Party’s central executive committee at 18:00
The group of former admirals said in a joint statement on Saturday that it was a misleading government policy to question the future of the so-called Montreux Convention, saying that the 1936 treaty was a guarantee of peace in the Black Sea, to which Turkey border. with Russia and Ukraine.
The admirals issued their statement shortly after the speaker of parliament, Mustafa Sentop, suggested that Erdogan have the power to withdraw from the treaty if he wanted to, although he later withdrew and said he was trying to make a point. to make about the powers of the president and not about a particular policy agenda. . His comments on the Montreux agreement revived a discussion on Erdogan’s Canal Istanbul multi-billion project to build a new strait across Istanbul to bypass the Bosphorus.
The statement by the former admiral “has no other use than to harm democracy and the motivation and morale of the Turkish army”, according to a statement from the Turkish Ministry of Defense. “We believe that the Turkish legal system will take the necessary steps,” the ministry said.
Erdogan says warships could bypass the 1936 treaty with the planned channel
Erdogan’s critics argue that the canal would be an environmental disaster and make Turkey’s largest city uninhabitable. Opposition parties have stated they will not run in the by-elections. The convention limits deployment in the Black Sea to 21 days for non-coastal ships, and obstruction for all aircraft carriers.
(President Erdogan’s decision to hold a meeting was added to the heading and first paragraph.)