President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Kyiv in February 2020, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Over the last week, nations and corporations all over the world have announced extensive economic and political sanctions against Russia, targeting the finance, energy, transport, technology, and visa sectors. A number of Russian banks have been removed from the SWIFT messaging system. Russia's Central Bank assets have been frozen, an unprecedented move, according to BBC economics editor Faisal Islam. Russia's President, the Foreign Minister, Putin’s inner circle, and high-profile members of the Russian elite's assets were also targeted. Germany decided to send weapons to Ukraine, in what some call a historic policy decision. Meanwhile, most of Europe, and Canada closed their airspace to Russian carriers. While US, UK, Europe and Canada have united in calling for sanctions against Russia, the Turkish government, which has long sought to act as a mediator in the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, and a NATO member state, is proceeding cautiously. However, the nation shifted its policy position on Sunday, February 27, when Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said, Ankara was “set to implement an international pact that could ban both Ukrainian and Russian warships from passing through the straits connecting the Black Sea to the south.” Until this weekend, Turkey was keen to preserve its neutrality between its fellow NATO allies and Russia. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on February 22, calling the recognition of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People Republics by Moscow “a clear violation of Ukraine’s political unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” “On the fourth day of the Ukraine war, we repeat President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s call for an immediate halt of Russian attacks and the start of ceasefire negotiations,” presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın said on Twitter. Kalın added that Turkey stands by Ukrainians and will continue its efforts to put an end to this “unjust and unlawful war.” The statement came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked his Turkish counterpart and the people of Turkey for banning Russian warships from passing through the Black Sea in a tweet. I thank my friend Mr. President of 🇹🇷 @RTErdogan and the people of 🇹🇷 for their strong support. The ban on the passage of 🇷🇺 warships to the Black Sea and significant military and humanitarian support for 🇺🇦 are extremely important today. The people of 🇺🇦 will never forget that! — Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 26, 2022 According to the Middle East Eye, an online news platform, Turkish officials denied making such a promise. Ukraine called on Turkey to close its straits to Russian warships as Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. “We are calling for the airspace, Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits to be closed. We have conveyed our relevant demand to the Turkish side. At the same time, we want sanctions imposed on the Russian side,” Ukrainian ambassador Vasyl Bodnar said in a news conference. On February 25, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Turkey cannot stop Russian warships from accessing the Black Sea via its straits, as it’s not legally compatible with the 1936 Montreux Convention, which regulates the straits of Dardanelles and Bosporus. Speaking from Kazakhstan on February 25, Çavuşoğlu said Turkey was studying Kyiv’s request but that based on the Convention, Russia had the right to return ships to their home base — in this case, the Black Sea. So even if Turkey decided to accept Ukraine’s request and close the straits to Russian warships, he said, they would only be prevented from traveling away from their home base into the Mediterranean. Besides granting Turkey full sovereignty over both straits and ensuring passage of civilian vessels during peacetime, under the 1936 Montreux Convention, Ankara has control over the straits and can limit military deployments in the Black Sea in cases of wartime or if it feels threatened. In his interview with local broadcaster NTV, on February 25, Çavuşoğlu said that in order to invoke the Montreux Convention, the Russian invasion first needs to be legally defined as a war. “Some say [the escalation in Ukraine] is a ‘total invasion, attack.’ [NATO Secretary General Jens] Stoltenberg said in one part of his speech, ‘total invasion, attack’ and then used the term ‘war,’ but legally, of course, this needs to be defined,” Çavuşoğlu said in an interview. However, the rhetoric in Ankara changed after Moscow assaulted Ukraine on its southern coast using Turkey’s straits. “It is not a couple of airstrikes now, the situation in Ukraine is officially a war.