Hursty I’d sincerely doubt it, mate. Erdoğan is already on a short leash since they shot down that Russian plane “by mistake” over Syria. Plus domestically he’s on very thin ice as it is, he can’t afford one single mistake. Shutting off the Bosphorus would be throwing a huge hat into the ring on this conflict, Putin would squeeze whatever life is left out of the economy here if he did, or maybe worse. I just can’t see that happening.
I had no idea until recently how busy the Bosphorus is with military movement, particulary Russian movement. I was sat on a rooftop not long ago a couple of hundred meters away and we saw a sub being escorted up by coast guard followed not long after by something that looked like a large rusty fishing trawler. If it wasn’t for the guys up the front holding rifles it could easily have passed for that. Very cool to see. Apparently it was some kind of special forces reconnaisance frigate, it looked like the boat Keyser Soze was on.
