Bosphorus shutterbugs set sights on Kremlin warships
Istanbul: Minutes after fishermen tip him off that a ship is about to pass through Istanbul’s Bosphorus, Yoruk Isik drops what he’s doing and rushes to his favourite vantage point, camera in hand.
The vessel is not one of the dozens of cargo boats that pass through the strait between Europe and Asia every day.
It is a Russian warship, in this case, the landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov.
It makes stately progress through the strait towards the Sea of Marmara on a voyage that will eventually take it into the Mediterranean towards Tartus, Russia’s naval base in Syria.
Isik clicks the shutter, capturing Russian sailors at the rails taking in the view.
The Russians can be seen returning the favour, keeping a close eye on the shore-side observers.
Several Russian warships pass in both directions through the Bosphorus every week, transporting cargo for Moscow’s military campaign in Syria, in a massive logistical effort known as the “Syrian Express”.
And each time they come, a group of amateur but well-informed and dedicated Turkish ship spotters are there to photograph them and share their work on social media, where their following has shot up.
Their work rose to prominence in December last year when they spotted a Russian soldier aboard the Tsezar Kunikov warship with a MANPAD shoulder-launched missile aimed at the shore, in a gesture slammed as “provocation” by Ankara.
The pictures made headlines in Turkish media at a time of peak tensions between Russia and Turkey following the downing of one of Moscow’s warplanes on the Syria border just 10 days earlier.
Standing by the old Ottoman fortress of Rumeli Hisari on the European shore of the Bosphorus where the strait is at its narrowest, Isik has been waiting for this particular Russian warship for days.
“From Sevastopol to Istanbul, it is approximately 300 nautical miles (555.6km). But the vessel may not always pass through the congested Bosphorus strait directly.”
As the nose of the vessel emerges, he cracks a big smile.
“Look, someone on the ship is saying hello to me,” he says, pointing out armed Russian soldiers on board through the camera lens.
Like a nautical dictionary, Isik knows all of the technical specifications of this Tapir class tank-carrying landing ship – when it was built, where it was used, how many military tanks it can carry.
While it struck many outsiders as astonishing that Russian warships were passing through the Bosphorus at the height of the 2015-2016 crisis between Turkey and Russia, it is a right enshrined in the 1936 Montreux Convention.
“It’s not exceptional to see Russian ships for someone who grew up and who lives in Istanbul,” Isik says.
But the traffic of Russian warships to Tartus has dramatically increased in recent years, he says.
“We predicted from August last year – by merely doing ship spotting – that Russia would launch an operation in Syria,” he says. — AFP