Articles

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Schedule of cruise ship calls at the Black Sea ports in September 2012

05 September 2012

Andrei KLIMENKO, BlackSeaNews At the very least, 16 cruise ships (instead of 5 in June, 11 in July, 7 in August) would call at the Black Sea ports in September 2012. Excluding Istanbul, they’ll visit, at least 13 ports. 2 mega-cruise ships ARCADIAand AZURA enter the Black Sea for the first time.6 vessel entries include overnight stay in a port - quite rare case in the Black Sea. 4 of them are the mega-vessels of about 300 meters in length, including famous QUEEN VICTORIA

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New Metro Line, Eid ul-Fitr Holiday and Chess Olympiad. Istanbul for the period 16-29/08/2012. BSN review.

03 September 2012

Helen Liukova, BlackSeaNews. For the past weeks developing Istanbul has feasted the Lesser Bayram holiday and celebrated the opening of a new metro line. Istanbul University has become part of The best universities of the World rating, whereas the city was identified as the noisiest city of Turkey. This and more in the coming BlackSeaNews review.

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Law on Sea Ports of Ukraine: First Impressions

04 July 2012

Arthur NITSEVYCH, Managing Partner, «International Law Offices», Alex CHEBOTARENKO, Senior lawyer, «International Law Offices», especially for BlackSeaNews. Ukraine has adopted and published new Law on Sea Ports. What is worth emphasizing first as the most important about this Law is that a long-waited reform of a sea port legal status has been introduced in the long run...

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Crimean economy without myths (3) Exclusive from BlackSeaNews

11 May 2012

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 ...

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Crimean economy without myths (2) Exclusive from BlackSeaNews

06 May 2012

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.

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Crimean economy without myths (1) Exclusive from BlackSeaNews

18 April 2012

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 ...

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The Democratization of the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly and the Implications for Conflict-resolution in the Wider Black Sea Region

31 January 2012

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...

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Black Sea Region: Evolution Of Geopolitical Change

17 January 2012

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...

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Black Sea Region Constitutes A Forward Stronghold Of The European And Global Fight Against «New» Threats

14 January 2012

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

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Crimean Peninsula Is A Fundamental Component Of Any Future Ukrainian Role In The Black Sea Region

11 January 2012

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’».

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Black Sea: A New Analytical Framework Is Needed

09 January 2012

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.

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The Black Sea Region Has Become The Place Of Collision Of Two World Outlooks: European And Neo-Soviet

16 December 2011

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...

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Can East meet West, or about Turkey, which unites Asia and Europe. Part 3. Meeting of Two Empires: the Byzantines and the Ottomans

09 May 2011

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.

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Can East meet West, or about Turkey, which unites Asia and Europe. Part Two: Meeting with Byzantium

26 March 2011

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.

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Implications of the Global Crisis for the Black Sea Region. A Report by the Commission on the Black Sea (3)

23 February 2011

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.