February 27, 2025 - At the same time, according to this concept, Turkey should assert its dominance over the three seas that encircle it: the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the eastern Mediterranean, all while being cautious not to enter into conflict with any major ...

September 20, 2020 - But it should not impose these things upon Turkey’s sovereignty and interests in the Aegean, Mediterranean, [and] Black Sea. They should know their place.” ... There is significant evidence that suggests that Gürdeniz’s views have had a profound impact. The most obvious sign of his influence is the now-pervasive use of the phrase “mavi vatan,” or “blue homeland.” In March 2019, the Turkish navy undertook large-scale exercises under the operational name “Blue Homeland 2019.” The official journal sponsored by Turkey’s Naval War College also bears the name Mavi Vatan.

Saying that “we are proud to wave of glorious Turkish banner in all our seas,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has pledged to protect “every swath of our 462,000 square kilometers of Blue Homeland with great determination” and has vowed to “undertake every possible duty that may come.” Erdoğan, though, is not the progenitor of Turkey’s new, expansionist naval doctrine.

Although Turkey did not join the Western-led sanctions regime against Russia, Ankara’s steps in the Black Sea region, such as its application of the Montreux Convention, its initial mediation efforts between Russia and Ukraine, the Black Sea Grain Deal, as well as the trilateral Black Sea Mine Coun­termeasures Task Force with Romania and Bulgaria, have been welcomed by the West. In the Eastern Mediterranean, however, the balance between Turkey being a partner or a challenger to its Western allies is rather different. Following Ankara’s controversial drilling activities in 2020, Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, stated that “the three old Empires: Russia, China and Turkey …

July 18, 2025 - Developed by the Ankara University National Centre for the Sea and Maritime Law (DEHUKAM), the map aligns with Türkiye’s national interests under the “Blue Homeland” (Mavi Vatan) vision, a comprehensive national vision that underscores the sovereign rights, jurisdictional claims, and strategic interests of Türkiye over its surrounding seas.

June 24, 2025 - In line with its pursuit of regional power and an autonomous foreign policy, Ankara envisioned a robust maritime presence to defend its interests in surrounding seas, including the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Dubbed the “Blue Homeland” doctrine, it aimed to enhance Turkey’s presence in its sea areas and project power where it has a military presence, such as Somalia and Libya.

During the last week of August, ... control over these waterways. The 1936 Montreux Convention gives Ankara broad rights to monitor and limit the types of vessels sailing into the Black Sea....

Put another way, the contemporary Turkish Black Sea paradigm is multifactorial: it is the product of different policy vectors, following different political-military directions, and eventually forming a complex strategic outlook. It has four main pillars: 1. Primacy of the Montreux Convention regime in Black Sea political-military affairs. While most writings have confused this stance with an effort to maintain balance with NATO and Russia, the primacy accorded to the Montreux Convention is actually a function of Turkey’s NATO membership, which urges the nation to prevent any potential trouble in its northern waters.

July 27, 2023 - Although outside observers initially saw “Blue Homeland” as the expression of Turkish claims to energy reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean, the vision is transcontinental, if not global. Exploitation of natural resources is only one aspect of the plan, the ultimate goal of which is to control the eastern sea transit routes to Europe. The historical foundation of the doctrine is the position that, for Turkey to regain its deserved status, it must acquire sea power.

Although security in the Black Sea region has always been and remains important for Turkey, the current Turkish defence policy seems to be largely directed southwards, towards the Middle East.

Mavi vatan’s second goal, strengthening Turkey’s regional maritime boundary claims, envisions Turkey declaring, delimiting, and defending maritime boundaries in the Aegean Sea, Black Sea, and Eastern Mediterranean. This goal represents perhaps the most common interpretation of mavi vatan, ...

September 19, 2022 - This is culminating in Turkey’s ‘Blue Homeland’ ambitions – the idea that Turkey should reclaim mercantile and maritime power in the Mediterranean. Using this toolbox and clearly being informed by lessons learned in Syria, Turkey is adopting an increasingly aggressive and revisionist foreign policy posture.

October 1, 2024 - [EPA-EFE/ERDEM SAHIN] The purpose of the Blue Homeland strategy is that Turkey should dominate the Mediterranean and reclaim the mercantile and maritime power once held by the Ottomans, writes Antonia Colibasanu.

October 16, 2024 - Strengthening NATO’s posture in the Black Sea, despite Turkey’s objections to a larger presence of non-littoral NATO states such as the United States, remains a mutual interest. Ankara has complied with all measures and decisions of the Alliance aimed at enhancing NATO’s defense and security posture since 2014 and has consistently supported the Alliance’s defense efforts in the Black Sea, for example by contributing forces to air policing in Romania and a NATO battlegroup in Bulgaria.

August 29, 2025 - This vision envisages that the state should turn its face completely to the seas, guarantee its rights and interests in maritime jurisdiction areas and focus on blue waters beyond the Mediterranean Sea.

November 17, 2025 - The (Montreux) Convention regarding the Regime of the Straits, often known simply as the Montreux Convention, is an international agreement governing the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits in Turkey. Signed on 20 July 1936 at the Montreux Palace in Switzerland, it went into effect on 9 November 1936, addressing the long running Straits Question over who should control the strategically vital link between the Black and Mediterranean seas.

The strategic position of the Black Sea and Turkey as the country controlling access to the Black Sea might make Western countries more willing to see past Erdogan’s behavior and attempt to improve the relations between the bloc and Turkey. However, it is important to keep in mind the opinion of Turkish people that do not necessarily consider the EU as the most attractive and reliable ally. Domestic narratives and policymaking play an important role in EU-Turkish relations, and Erdogan’s attempts at centralizing power and unifying Turkey by creating a stronger religious and nationalist narrative have alienated it from European leaders.

Constraining Moscow’s expansionist policies in the Black Sea should involve practical steps, such as establishing a Black Sea maritime policing mission with a year-round NATO naval presence. Most importantly, however, is to have a common resolute position. Yörük Işık is a geopolitical analyst based in Istanbul, where he runs the Bosphorus Observer, a consultancy analyzing maritime activity on the Turkish Straits. He is also a non-resident scholar with MEI’s Turkey Program.

It also prohibits any country from deploying to the Black Sea more than nine naval vessels displacing a total aggregate of 45,000 tons; it requires that no group of non-littoral states deploy to the Black Sea any naval vessel weighing more than 10,000 tons; and it limits the stay of any vessels ...