Statement by Minister Akar on the Mine Threat in the Bosphorus in Istanbul

Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar participated in the live broadcast of CNN Türk during the Doha program and made a statement about the mines that emerged in the Bosphorus and Russia's statements on this issue.

In his statement, Minister Akar said, “Now, we have received various information on this subject from Russia and Ukraine. Within the framework of this information, we received information that some of the sea mines were unintentionally broken in the Odessa region and that the mines, as we call vagrant mines, are and may be in the region. While we are investigating and examining this on the one hand, we continue our contacts with both Russia and Ukraine and try to understand what the truth is, on the other hand, we have mobilized the flying and floating elements of our Naval Forces, especially the Navy, in a sense, we have warned them, our friends are on the alert, and since then Since this news first came, all of them, including our mine hunting ships, have been on duty in order not to encounter any negative situations. All of these have been shared with other institutions, the coast guard, and other institutions, and we are working together.

As you know, there is a news about this subject. That he saw a mine here from a merchant ship, that there was an object here. Thereupon, necessary information was given to our elements, who were already on patrol in the region. A SAS team was dispatched to the area. The SAS team saw that there was indeed an object there, pulled that object to the safe zone, examined it, and as a result of this examination, they determined that the object in question was an old mine.

An old mine is continuing our investigations for it. A full decision has not been made on him, his investigation is ongoing. And who it belongs to, what does it belong to, is it one of the mines laid by the Ukrainians in Odessa, or whether it is an older mine, is still under investigation, but the mine was destroyed by our SAS team by withdrawing to the safe zone. And at the moment, there is no negativity in the traffic in the Bosphorus, within the framework of the information we received.