Turkey will fully comply with the provisions of the Montreux Convention on the status of the straits against the background of tensions around Ukraine, said the head of the Turkish Defense Ministry Hulusi Akar, TASS reported.

According to him, Ankara will also continue contacts with Moscow and Kyiv to normalize relations between them. "The status of the Straits (the rules of passing the ships of the Black Sea and non-Black Sea countries), set by the convention, benefits all the parties. In the current circumstances, there is no question of abandoning this convention. As for the Black Sea dialogue, Turkey is doing everything it should. We will continue our dialogue with Russia and Ukraine and we will fulfill our NATO obligations," TRT TV quoted the Minister as saying.