Montreux Convention 1936

The Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits was signed at Montreux on 20 July 1936 and entered into force on 9 November 1936, having been applied provisionally from 15 August 1936. It governs passage through the Turkish Straits and is preserved by Article 35(c) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Turkey is not a party.

Article 2 provides that in time of peace merchant vessels shall enjoy complete freedom of transit and navigation in the Straits, by day and by night, under any flag and with any kind of cargo, without any formalities, and that pilotage and towage remain optional. Charges are capped at the Annex I tariff, expressed in gold francs per ton of net register tonnage under three heads and limited to the cost of the services concerned. Articles 8 to 22 impose a separate and far more restrictive regime on warships.

The full article will cover the merchant and warship provisions article by article, the Annex I tariff and its modern application, Articles 20 and 21, and the relationship between the Convention and Turkish national traffic law.