ANKARA – For merchant crews working the western Black Sea, the most useful sentence in Wednesday’s phone call was a modest one: Turkey says it is talking to both Russia and Ukraine about keeping shipping safe. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the point to Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev, whose country has just had two commercial vessels hit by drones inside its exclusive economic zone.
Turkey’s Communications Directorate said Erdogan stressed that Ankara maintains contact with Moscow and Kyiv to ensure navigation safety, according to a report by Anadolu Agency. He expressed sorrow over the drone attack in Bulgaria’s maritime zone and wished for a swift restoration of normal conditions. The Turkish account named no party behind the strikes and announced no new arrangement with either belligerent.
The Bulgarian version of the call, issued by Radev’s government press service and carried by the Bulgarian News Agency, was more concrete about what the two capitals want. It said both leaders committed to strengthening bilateral initiatives, and cooperation involving Romania, to protect freedom of navigation. That points to a regional effort among Black Sea neighbours, running alongside Turkey’s separate diplomacy with Russia and Ukraine.
The incident that set this in motion happened on October 6. Radev said two commercial vessels were struck by drones that day in what he called the first attack on shipping in the NATO member’s exclusive economic zone, as ABC News reported from the wire. Bulgarian officials have said the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan sank about 70 nautical miles off the coast and that its ten crew members were not found before the search was halted, while the second ship caught fire and its crew was rescued.
Who launched the drones has not been established in the accounts reviewed here. Bulgaria’s defence minister suspected Russian involvement, according to the Bulgarian News Agency, and Radev has called Russia the logical hypothesis while acknowledging that the type of drone had not been determined. Neither claim amounts to a finding, and Wednesday’s readouts from Ankara and Sofia did not repeat it. Eastern Herald examined the evidence gap in its report on Bulgaria’s request to NATO for jets.
What Radev is asking for is a pause rather than a patrol. He has pressed for a moratorium on attacks against commercial and civilian ships, a proposal he took to the European Council in Brussels. According to the Bulgarian readout, Erdogan agreed that a moratorium on military strikes against commercial shipping offers a reasonable and viable solution in the interests of all countries. The same account did not say that Russia or Ukraine had accepted it.
Ankara has been working the same problem from the other direction. A Turkish government item reproducing a Reuters report said Erdogan told Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 7 that safe navigation in the Black Sea was important, and that Turkey was awaiting answers to a proposal conveyed to Russia and Ukraine aimed at ending attacks and securing grain shipments, the directorate said. Wednesday’s statement suggests that the answers had not yet arrived in a form either government was willing to announce.
The pressure is not confined to the sea lanes. Romania has been dealing with drones of its own, and Eastern Herald reported that Romanian F-16s downed two Geran drones over the Black Sea with their origin left open. For states on the western shore, the question is how much of this is deliberate targeting of shipping and how much is spillover from the war between Russia and Ukraine, and none of the available statements settles that.
Grain is one reason Turkey cannot treat the issue as a distant dispute. The strategic waters carry Ukrainian and Russian cargoes that other countries depend on, and transit politics are already contested inland, as Eastern Herald noted when Hungary let Ukrainian grain cross its territory while doubting that Zelensky would follow. Turkey is also developing its own Black Sea energy infrastructure, including the gas platform covered in Eastern Herald’s report on Osman Gazi leaving port, which gives Ankara a direct stake in a safer sea.
Beyond security, the call covered bilateral business. Erdogan said Turkey intends to expand cooperation with Bulgaria, primarily in trade and the economy, according to the Turkish directorate, which gave no target or specific agreement. The Bulgarian readout added border infrastructure and transport links, including raising the capacity of border crossing points and possible European Union funding, and said Radev was invited to a Europe and Central Asia connectivity meeting in Sofia early next year.
Erdogan, for his part, invited Radev to the COP31 leaders’ summit in Antalya on November 11 and 12.
The unanswered question is the one that decides whether any of this protects a ship: whether Moscow and Kyiv will commit to leave commercial vessels out of their war. Turkey says it is asking both. Bulgaria says a moratorium is viable. Neither has shown that the people launching drones agree, who is responsible for the October 6 strikes, or what would happen to the next vessel that is hit.
