Bosporus

A US Navy destroyer on June 11 crossed the Bosphorus and entered the Black Sea, Turkey's Anadolu state news agency reported, as tensions simmer around Ukraine.

The crossing by the USS Laboon was reported as U.S. President Joe Biden met Western leaders at the G7 summit in England.

A painting museum on the shores of Istanbul's Bosphorus is home to an Ottoman palace painting collection that continues to draw visitors despite the pandemic.

Following a multi-year restoration project, the National Palaces Painting Museum in Istanbul's Beşiktaş district was reopened by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in January.

A floating tennis court has been built on the Golden Horn in Istanbul, and the opening match was conducted with the participation of the province's mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, and his wife, Dilek İmamoğlu.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after trying to change the country's history through his involvement in numerous conflicts in the Middle East and Nagorno Karabakh, appears to be determined to change the geography also by trying to create a second Bosporus strait.

Every day, fishermen are going out fishing in the Bosphorus to hunt veined rapa whelks, large sea snails that have been touted widely as an antidote to cancer and are popular in Far Eastern countries.

Taner Yıldız, an academic from Istanbul University, told daily Hürriyet that the rapa whelks were significantly valuable, saying their export market value is around $20 million.

British warships will sail for the Black Sea in May amid rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia, the Sunday Times newspaper has reported.

The deployment is aimed at showing solidarity with Ukraine and Britain's NATO allies, the newspaper reported.

The United States has canceled this week's planned deployment of two warships to the Black Sea, Turkish officials said on April 14, amid high tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Turkish diplomatic sources said the passage of the first ship through the Bosphorus due on Wednesday did not take place.

The Kanal Istanbul mega-project will result in greater peace of mind for the Turkish nation, said Turkey's president on April 14.

"The Kanal Istanbul project, which has nothing to do with the Montreux Convention, will bring Turkey greater comfort and peace," said Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, referring to a 1936 agreement on the Turkish Straits, also in the Istanbul province.

A tanker passes through the Bosporus in Istanbul. Photo: Pixabay/Sinasi Müldür

The international convention, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has suggested it might quit, governs the use of the Turkish Straits - the Dardanelles and Bosporus, strategic waterways that connect the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

With the possibility that the sea level in Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait might rise by 3 to 5 meters, there are fears that buildings along the strait's shore might submerge if the temperature increases by 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, according to a parliamentary report.