The Turkish Straits
On 28 October 2026 three naval drones struck the container ship Contship Jet off Bulgaria, on its way to Romania, as the defence ministers of Bulgaria, Romania and Türkiye met on Black Sea security. This film explains the geography and law behind every ship in that sea: why the Black Sea's only link to the oceans is a chain of two narrow straits and the Sea of Marmara; how fresh water flows out on top while salty water flows in underneath; why empires from the Persians to the Ottomans fought to hold them; how the Treaty of Lausanne placed them under an international commission in 1923; what the Montreux Convention of 1936 says about merchant ships and warships; how Türkiye applied it in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine; and why the straits remain one of the world's busiest waterways.
The narrow door to the Black Sea
Two straits, one treaty, every ship.
A sea with one door
Two straits and a small sea between.
Two rivers in one
Fresh water out on top, salt water in below.
Empires at the door
Whoever holds the straits holds the crossing.
The rules of 1936
Free for trade, limited for warships.
War and the straits
The treaty’s wartime clauses, used.
The narrow door
Geography made it; a treaty runs it.
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