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08-18-2008, 06:20 AM
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US yet to ask Turkey to let hospital ships through
ANKARA - Agence France-Presse
Washington has made no formal request of Ankara to allow two U.S. hospital ships to sail through the Turkish straits to Georgia, a U.S. diplomat said Saturday, following reports that Turkey was dragging its feet on making a decision. "The United States is considering a lot of actions" to help Georgia amid its conflict with Russia over South Ossetia, Kathy Schallow, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, told Agence France-Presse. "But as far as I know, we have not made a formal decision about sending those two ships," she said, adding that "a formal request" for their passage to the Black Sea via the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits was not made either. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Ankara was cooperating with countries sending assistance to Georgia and "no request with the purpose of humanitarian aid or repatriation has been denied so far." Without a reference to the U.S. ships, the statement said the transportation of assistance by sea was regulated under the terms of the 1936 Montreux Convention, which governs international traffic through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. Private NTV news channel reported that the two ships' tonnage exceeded the limits set by the convention. General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday that Washington's plans called for sending two U.S. Navy hospital ships to Georgia, among other assistance. Unnamed U.S. officials told McClatchy newspapers that the two hospital ships likely to go -- the Comfort and the Mercy -- would take weeks to arrive and complained that Turkey was "sluggish and unresponsive" in granting them a permission to sail through the straits to the Black Sea. Footnote: According to " Montreux Convention " countries who haven't coast in Black Sea, their navy ships have to be maximum 45.000 tons and they have to inform Turkish Government 8 days before. We have to obey it ...
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