Turkey - US warship sails through straits, Russia suspicious
The guided missile destroyer USS McFaul passed through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, and two other ships, the US Coast Guard cutter Dallas and the command ship USS Mount Whitney, will follow in the coming days. "The USS McFaul is under way now, having taken on humanitarian supplies for the people of Georgia," a spokes-man for the US Navy in Europe said.
Russia, which occupied part of Georgia in response to a Georgian military offensive in the pro-Russia breakaway region of South Ossetia early this month, expressed concern over the US Navy ships' trip to the Black Sea. "From the Russian point of view … the usefulness of this operation is extremely dubious," Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff was quoted by Reuters as saying when asked about the US Navy mission to deliver aid to Georgia.The rising tensions have increased opposition pressure on the government at home. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), which views government efforts to create a Caucasus regional platform to resolve regional crises with suspicion, yesterday formally requested a statement on whether the US ships transiting the Turkish Straits met Montreux standards. The CHP's Onur Öymen issued a formal inquiry to Foreign Minister Ali Babacan over whether the United States complied with Montreux requirements that all warship transits have to be declared to Turkish authorities eight days in advance.
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