Should have asked for the Turkish Captain

A strange international treaty governs the rules regarding management of Turkish channels. While Turkia does have the final say about passage of warships through, there is little Turkey can do to control the passage of commecial carriers of different nations, in peace time.

It is a tricky water passage and the passing commercial ships have the  right to refuse allowing Turkish pilot captains on board, even when the dangers are highlighted to them.

There have been numerous close calls experienced in the past. That a catastrophic accident has not happened so far,  is purely by luck.

Picture of the recent ship accident.

http://www.internethaber.com/news_detail.php?id=193993&page=4

That strange international treaty is called Montreux Treaty and it is the basis of Turkey´s regaining control over the Turkish Straits.  At the time, it was a resounding victory for Turkey. The parties involved, most notably Russia has always had problems with certain clauses like international aircraft carriers not being allowed passage through the straits which effectively bars their aircraft carriers located in the Black Sea from navigating in the Mediterranean. Although US  has recently stretched this clause a little by sending reportedly humanitarian aid carrying war vessels through Bosphorus in a move which was generally interpreted as  a display of power following the Russian invasion of Georgian territory.

International shipping companies  complain of the domestic traffic between the two sides of Bosphorus and the local maritime company complains of not being able to extend sea transportation which has a significant weight in the transportation between the two sides of Istanbul.

Turkey was also convinced by the parties who use the straits to construct a radar network in order to facilitate passages which Turkey completed a while ago.  No matter what measures are taken, the physical features of especially Bosphorus make it a very dangerous place to navigate. There are very strong currents that change direction in a very complex pattern.

Most accidents happen due to mechanical problems. Some of them are caused by collisions.  A long time ago, we witnessed the results of a big accident that involved a huge Rumenian tanker which kept burning for weeks after the accident. The results of the accident was catastrophic for the environment.

I guess a very good step forward would be making it compulsory to take strait pilot during passage. This way accidents due to navigation errors can be minimized.