bosporus

For context, there's a 1936 international treaty that regulates traversal of the Bosporus Straits called the Montreux convention [1].

Being in between two seas with the Bosporus strait in the middle takes a lot of directions for growth away.

If they didn't end up in control of the Bosporus Straits, they probably wouldn't have been.

Odd that they'd have put this in the Black Sea, where the only salt-water egress is via the Bosporus & Dardanelles, i.e.

The Ural mountains, the Black Sea and the Bosporus aren't sensical physical boundaries?

Turkey has the physical ability to block the Bosporus and the Dardanneles, but modern Turkey has never had the right to do so.

Russia also has used internal waterways to bypass the Bosporus Straits [2].

The traditional boundaries of Asia were Bosporus and Nile.

The Black Sea Deluge Hypothesis posits that around 7,500 years ago, the Mediterranean Sea breached the Bosporus Strait, causing a massive influx of water into the Black Sea.

The Bosporus straight in Istanbul and the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt have been very significant historically and geopolitically— history would be very different in a world where these don't exist.

If I might quote Gemini's summary since it seems accurate enough: > Geographical/Historical: The Bosporus Strait in Turkey is historically considered the dividing line between Europe (West) and Asia (East).

I suppose you're leaning into the "Bosporus Strait" option more than the "Prime Meridian" option, given that the former would put most of Europe in the West while the latter would put most of it in the East.

Geography nitpick: The airport in Istanbul is actually east of the Bosporus, making it Asia.

Sitting on that many chairs is not acceptable even if you control the Bosporus.

I was recently in Istanbul and I’m always reminded of Scarry when I watch the traffic going over the Bosporus.