Kunashir Island Kunashir Island Kunashir Island (; , "Kunashiri-tō"; or クナシㇽ, "Kunasir"), possibly meaning "Black Island" or "Grass Island" in Ainu, is the southernmost island of the Kuril Islands, an archipelago under Russian control, among which Kunashir Island and another three islands are claimed by Japan (see Kuril Islands dispute). It lies between the straits of Kunashir Island, Catherine, Izmena, and South Kuril. Kunashir Island is visible from the nearby Japanese island of Hokkaido, from which it is separated by the Nemuro Strait. Kunashir Island is formed by four volcanoes which were separate islands but have since joined together by low-lying areas
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