Articles

Andrei KLIMENKO, Tatiana GUCHAKOVA, BlackSeaNews. In the past 20 years the Crimean economy «preferred» natural restructuring against the background of preservation of the big chemistry enterprises – a sheer market experiment... Spontaneity was especially evident in 2003-2008, when a massive market deviation occurred – land and construction businesses, which for the short period developed into main economic branches of the Crimea, by the present time have come to self-destruction ...

Andrei Klimenko, Tatiana Guchakova, BlackSeaNews .The structure of the Crimean economy, spontaneously formed by 2001and unchanged till nowadays , is the main challenge for the new team of the Crimean government. And it is not about reforming, but about the need to change radically and in a relatively short time an established, stably primitive and hopeless economic structure consisting of the post-Soviet leftovers with some individual market economy inclusions.

Andrei Klimenko, Tatiana GUCHAKOVA, BlackSeaNews. The nature of economic processes in the Crimea was never determined by tourism. It is just a myth. First and foremost, in Soviet times the Crimea was a military base and the center of the instrument-making and ship-building intended for military purposes. Resort specialization was just a social program meant for the USSR population and its cost-effectiveness was not needed then, while now ...

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...

Jakob HEDENSKOG, Defence Research Agency, Sweden.The Black Sea area is a region of great potential but also one beset with problems and risks. Due to its strategic location in the middle of Eurasia, control of the Black Sea region is of great geopolitical interest. For instance, the Black Sea region derives relevance from its position as a vital transit route, as an «energy corridor» between Europe and the Caspian Sea

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...

Alexey SOLOVIEV, BlackSeaNews. Exploring the shores of the Bosphorus, we ascertained the fact that geography of some points on the world map was predestined for foundation of the cities. Our Turkish colleagues showed us those momentous buildings of Istanbul, which reveal the historical code of this magnificent city.

Alexey SOLOVIEV, BlackSeaNews. There is one more place on the Bosporus which, for centuries used to link east and west – the Altın Boynuz or the Golden Horn harbor. Its shape really resembles a horn, which is stuck for 12 kilometers deep into the European shore of the strait. The harbor is considered to be one of the best in the world. And right there is the historic center of modern Istanbul with its major tourist attractions.

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.

Alexey SOLOVIEV, Editor of Tourism Section of BSNews. They say that West is West, and East is East and never the twain shall meet. My recent trip to Turkey made ​​me to change my attitude to this phrase. Thus, our journey to the country, 3% of which is located in Europe and the rest 97% in Asia, starts in Ukraine, the biggest European country, i.e. entirely located on the European continent.

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.

Andrei KLIMENKO, BSNews, translation from Russian by Alexey Soloviev, BSNews. The year has started, the one of the 20^th year post-Soviet anniversaries of 1991-2011 and the Crimean anniversary of the referendum on re-establishment of the autonomy. 20 years, that’s really a lot of time. And through these notes your author wants to encourage the Crimean and non-Crimean intellectuals to think over the route...