DESTROYER TURNER PASSING THROUGH STRAITS; DESTROYER DYESS PASSING THROUGH; DYESS ENTERING BLACK SEA.




Initials DHC/VS/AS/BB



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Background: Two American destroyers steamed through the Bosphorous into the Black Sea today (Monday) despite charges by the Soviet Union that their entry was provocative and esigned to raise tension in the area. Tonight, with Turkey's permission, the destroyers Turner and Dyess cruised 25 miles (40 Kms) off the Turkish Black Sea coast after passing through the Bosphorous at 0600 GMT.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara today dismissed Soviet press allegations that the warships would contravene the 1936 Montreux Convention barring vessels of non Black Sea states with firepower above a certain level. The Dyess carries ASROC (anti-submarine rockets) which can carry either acoustic homing torpedoes or nuclear depth charges.

The United States has maintained that Turner And Dyess are on routine operations in international waters, that the vessels will spend only about five days in the Black Sea, and that the Convention has not been violated.

Both destroyers are more than 20 years old, and are two of the 75 ships of the Gearing Class constructed after World War Two.