Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits of who should control the strategically vital link between the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea. In 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne had demilitarised the Dardanelles and opened the Straits to unrestricted civilian and military traffic, under the supervision of the International Straits Commission of the League of Nations. By the late 1930s, the strategic situation in the Mediterranean had altered with the rise of Fascist Italy, which controlled the Greek-inhabited Dodecanese islands off the west coast of Turkey and had constructed fortifications on Rhodes, Leros and Kos. The Turks feared that Italy would seek to exploit access to the Straits
Greek island affair Greek island affair The Greek island affair (, "Parashat HaEe HaYevani") was an Israeli political scandal involving David Appel, Ariel Sharon, at the time a minister in the Likud party, and others close to Sharon. The scandal consisted of charges, later dropped, that Appel had obtained favourable treatment from Sharon and his allies, which would help him and his fellow investors purchase the small rocky island of Patroklos at the tip of Attica, in the town of Palaia Fokaia, for the purpose of building a multimillion-dollar resort complex. The project was illegally obstructed. While Ariel Sharon was Foreign Minister under