In a tense regional context, Turkey celebrates its centenary with a naval parade of 100 warships on the Bosphorus

2023-10-31 13:24:04

WORLD – In a tense regional context, Turkey celebrates its centenary with a naval parade of 100 warships on the Bosphorus

Turkey celebrated its centenary on Saturday October 28, 2023 with the largest naval parade in its history. Overlooking the Bosphorus Strait, Turks watched fireworks, drone demonstrations in the skies of Istanbul and the parade of one hundred military ships, including the aircraft carrier Anadolu. “No imperialist power will be able to prevent the happiness, success and victory of the Turkish Republic”, declared President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ankara took the opportunity of Turkey’s 100th anniversary celebrations to show its muscles, in a very tense geopolitical context, marked by the war in Ukraine, the war between Israel and Hamas as well as the increasingly increased presence of the American fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf.

Before kicking off the official ceremonies, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid tribute in Ankara to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey. “Our Republic is safe and in good hands as it has never been. Rest in peace”, did he declare. On the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, he said “that no imperialist power will be able to prevent the happiness, success and victory of the Turkish Republic”.

The navy to establish itself in the region

The acrobatic figures of the fighter planes writing the number 100 in the sky quickly gave way to an impressive parade of 100 military ships going up the Bosphorus Strait towards the Black Sea, led by Anadolu, an aircraft carrier that entered service in February 2023 and is equipped to accommodate drones. The Turkish army, the second largest in NATO and the eighth largest in the world in terms of its numbers, also mobilized 24 helicopters from its navy and its soldiers in the streets of Istanbul on the occasion of this centenary.

This parade, more naval than land or air, above all recalls the strategic importance of the Turkish navy. In June 2021, Erdogan highlighted in a speech “the capacities” of its naval army and its previous operations, “from the Eastern Mediterranean to counter-terrorist operations in Syria and Iraq”. Since February 2022, tensions have further intensified with the war in Ukraine and the escalation, since October 7, of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Turkey gained influence by closing, from the start of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, its Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, which connect the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, to the navy of Moscow, the main military power in the region. The Black Sea, scene of numerous battles between Ukraine and Russia, is also home to a neutral air zone as well as a military presence of the Transatlantic Alliance.

For the Kremlin, this intercontinental sea is a strategic issue of prime importance, offering it access to the Mediterranean via the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits.

Influence the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict?

This Turkish show of force comes after the deployment by the US Navy in mid-October of the world’s largest warship, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, in support of Israel. Washington announced on Friday October 27, the day before the celebration of Turkey’s centenary, a second ship, theUSS Dwight D. Eisenhowerto deter any regional escalation with Iran.

If Russia recalled its submarine Krasnodar, one of its most modern ships, its presence in the Mediterranean Sea has remained reinforced since February 2023. But its ships cannot take part in the war in Ukraine, since the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits are closed under the Montreux Convention of July 20, 1936, which allows Turkey to take such a decision in the event of a conflict in which it is not a belligerent. In response to the presence of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald FordPresident Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment in the neutral zone of the Black Sea of ​​MiG-31s ​​equipped with Kinzhal, hypersonic air-to-ground ballistic missiles.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas was also present during the celebrations of Turkey’s hundredth anniversary. On October 27, the eve of this historic day for Ankara, President Erdogan personally took part in the major meeting organized by his party, the AKP, in support of Palestine.

In a speech delivered at the former Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, he expressed his desire to demonstrate “attitude tenace” to defend the Palestinians, “in accordance with the wishes of Mustapha Atatürk”. “The Turkish Republic is today the protector of those who have no one else in the world (…) We are trying to help the people of Gaza by showing a tenacious attitude towards Palestine and Gaza.”