Turkey Wildfire Forces Closure of Critical Dardanelles Waterway

Turkey has closed the Dardanelles Strait, a critical maritime passage, due to a raging wildfire threatening the strategic waterway. The closure, announced by the Turkish Transport Ministry, comes as firefighting teams work to contain the blaze near Canakkale, prompting the evacuation of multiple neighborhoods.

The shutdown is a significant disruption to international shipping routes between Europe and Asia. Turkish emergency crews have deployed specialist firefighting planes and helicopters in a desperate attempt to control the wildfire, which has been complicated by strong winds and high temperatures.

The closure of the Dardanelles, along with the nearby Bosphorus Strait, poses a threat to global maritime trade, as nearly 25,000 vessels transited the waterway in 2024 alone. This wildfire is part of a larger crisis in Turkey, where a devastating summer wildfire season has already claimed lives and destroyed forests, with experts warning that climate change has made the country increasingly vulnerable to such disasters.