For most of the war, the Bosporus itself has been the quiet part of the Black Sea. Ships queued off Istanbul, paid their lighthouse fees and went north or south as they always had. The danger began past Rumeli Feneri, at the strait's northern mouth. In 2026 that danger moved…
At about ten past seven on the evening of 11 October 2026, the Maltese-flagged tanker Ivyan lost her engine in the middle of the Bosporus. The…
On 7 April 2018 a Maltese-flagged bulk carrier, the Vitaspirit, lost steering while heading south through the Bosporus and drove straight into the…
Every warship that wants to pass the Bosporus is governed by a treaty signed in a Swiss lakeside town in July 1936, before radar, before aircraft…
The Bosporus is at its narrowest, about 700 metres, between Aşiyan on the European shore and Kandilli on the Asian one. Two Ottoman fortresses face…
On 2 March 2026 the Russian minesweeper Valentin Pikul sank at its berth in Novorossiysk, according to Ukraine's defence ministry. It wasn't a famous…
In Beykoz, on the Asian shore near the Bosporus's northern end, Turkey has set up the headquarters for the navy of a peace that doesn't exist yet. On…
A tanker leaving Novorossiysk for the Mediterranean doesn't pass one strait. It passes a system about 370 kilometres long: the Bosporus through…
