ANKARA, August 18. /TASS/. Ankara has warned Moscow about the risk of escalation in the Black Sea if the Russian military continue inspecting vessels in the region, the Turkish anti-disinformation center said in a statement.
The Sukru Okan bulk carrier, flying the Palau flag, was stopped and inspected by the Russian military in the Black Sea on August 13.
"In the wake of the measures taken against the ship, the Russian side was duly informed about the need to avoid such initiatives in the future, because they may exacerbate tensions in the Black Sea," said the center, established under the aegis of the Communications Department of the Turkish Presidential Administration.
The department published its statement as a response to numerous calls by Turkish politicians and internet users to clarify why Ankara failed to duly react to the incident. The organization described remarks of this kind as an attempt to manipulate the public opinion.
The administration said in a statement that although Sukru Okan is owned by a citizen of Turkey, it was not a Turkish-flagged ship. "From the point of view of the international law, the predominant factor that defines the ship’s affiliation is the flag, not the nationality of its owner," the organization added. Apart from that, the statement clarifies that the ship was inspected in international waters, not in Turkey’s domestic waters.
The Russian Navy’s Vasily Bykov patrol ship ordered the Palau-flagged dry cargo ship Sukru Okan, en route to the Ukrainian port of Izmail, to stop for an inspection. "The dry cargo ship’s captain did not respond to the demand to stop for an inspection of the potential carriage of prohibited goods. The Russian combat ship fired warning shots from automatic small arms to forcibly stop the vessel," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The inspection was carried out in a professional manner, in accordance with internationally accepted regulations, in order to make sure that the ship had no prohibited cargo on board, the ministry added.
The ship’s owner told CNN that the ship’s captain had signed a document certifying that the ship sustained no damage, and no cargo was seized.