International agencies - Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC)

   

Mitat CELIKPALA, Associate Professor at Kadir Has University, Istanbul.  Energy competition in the Black Sea region, which was not in the spotlight in the post-2008 Russia- Georgia war period and was under the influence of the international financial crisis, has been showing signs of revival with the prospects of economic recovery and the signing of new agreements. For the last few years, Turkey has been trying to implement a comprehensive energy and foreign policy by considering alternative pipelines. This has not been an easy task for a transit country.

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Natalya BELITSER, Kyiv, Ukraine. The ‘frozen’ situation of this conflict has essentially changed over the last couple of years. Therefore, in order to assess the new opportunities, but also risks and challenges linked to these changes, this paper addresses the background and the environment in which the conflict developed, and previous attempts of its resolution...

On 25 June 1992,the Heads of State and Government of eleven countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine signed in Istanbul the Summit Declaration and the Bosphorus Statement giving birth to the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.

It came into existence as a unique and promising model of multilateral political and economic initiative aimed at fostering interaction among the Member States, as well as to ensure peace, stability and good-neighbourly relations in the Black Sea region.

   

Andrei Klimenko, Tatiana GUCHAKOVA, BSNews. On December 15, 2012 Istanbul hosted the 27^th summit of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation, during which Ukraine formally accepted from Turkey the BSEC chairmanship.The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn HRYSHCHENKO gave an exclusive interview to BSNews before the summit’s opening ...

   

Andrei KLIMENKO, Tatiana GUCHAKOVA (photo), Michael ROZENSHTEIN (photo),  BSNews. This conversation took place in early October, when the Moldovan diplomat and historian, Professor Victor Tvircun has worked for the first three months as the Secretary General of BSEC. We took advantage of his profession in order to talk about the "historic risks" and historical perspectives for the Black Sea economies...

   

Dr. Carol WEAVER, Mukhtar HAJIZADA, CIES Policy Briefs №1 (Kadir Has University, Istanbul), special for BSNews. This Brief proposes a new idea of fully democratizing the BSEC. In order to bring about improved democracy, the Parliamentary Assembly of BSEC would have popular elections to its chamber...

   

Alla YAZ'KOVA, Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Over the two decades that passed after the USSR break-up, the previously rather calm and in a way peripheral Black Sea region has become a crossroad of multifaceted contradictions and geopolitical competition...

   

Dimitrios TRIANTAPHYLLOU, Center for International and European Studies, Turkey. There is no clear trend as to the direction the Black Sea Region is going towards today. The verdict is still out as to whether, in geopolitical terms, it is border region or a «‘bridge or buffer zone’, a ‘pivot’ that lies at the centre of a Mackinder-type ‘geopolitical heartland’».

   

Valeri RATCHEV, Director, Political Cabinet, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Bulgaria. Nine times out of ten the wider Black Sea area is pictured in security analyses as a cross-field of geopolitical regions («region-between-regions») in which prevailing players exercise different instruments of power with the intention to establish some kind of control – political, economic, and even military.

   

Tengiz PKHALADZE, Chairman, International Centre for Geopolitical Studies, Georgia. Razumkov Centre’s Roundtable. The Black Sea region instead of cooperation has been turned into the scene of geopolitical confrontation. The Russian Federation – after the World War II, the Black Sea was actually placed under the control of the Soviet empire. As the USSR successor, the Russian Federation is still enthralled by its old ambitions...

   

BSNews editorial note. We continue to publish a series of reports of the Commission on the Black Sea which reassess the economic, social, regional political and military developments in the Black Sea region. This is a final part of the first report which provides a better understanding of the parameters of the economic developments in the Black Sea. Its author – Panayotis GAVRAS.

   

BSNews editorial note. We continue to publish a series of reports of the Commission on the Black Sea which reassess the economic, social, regional political and military developments in the Black Sea region. This is a continuation of the first report which provides a better understanding of the parameters of the economic developments in the Black Sea. Its author – Panayotis GAVRAS.