Xenophon Paper 2 pdf - ICBSS

After an enthusiastic start, however, it became clear that the member countries of the
BSEC lacked the necessary political will to create genuine regional political cooperation.
Thus Ozal’s initial vision was never fully realised. The BSEC was established right from
the beginning as an organisation aimed at increasing regional cooperation mainly in the
economic field. From the early 1990s onwards however, armed conflicts and increasing
political tension marked the WBSR instead of the expanding regional economic
cooperation, The Transnistria problem in Moldova, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Chechen issue in Russia, the Abkhaz and South
Ossetian problems in Georgia overshadowed regional economic cooperation prospects
in the Black Sea region. Since the BSEC was, and still is, not entrusted with a political
role, let alone a peacemaking and/or peacekeeping mission, it lacks the necessary
institutions for a proactive diplomacy and cannot enter the picture as a capable regional
actor under such an overly securitized Black Sea region. Thus, up until today, the real
potential of economic cooperation in the Black Sea region has not been unleashed due
to the persisting contention between promising economic prospects from the region and
the traditionally confrontational political agendas of individual states and the many
lingering security problems.
From the Turkish perspective, the BSEC solemnly started as a multilateral economic
initiative aiming to facilitate the former Soviet countries’ transition to open, market-based
and private-sector driven economies. In this sense, it could be argued that the BSEC
has proved its worth through its contributions to this initial task, facilitating its members’
transition as well as playing a role in creating possibilities of cooperation that simply did
not exist before in the region. It also generated a discussion of identity both within and
outside the region, leading to the emergence of a sort of rudimentary regional identity
through political pronouncements and expediency. The current task for the BSEC should
be facilitating its members’ further integration into the global economy and advancing
political cooperation capacities within the region.
The agenda and priorities of the Turkish Chairmanship of the BSEC
(May-October 2007)
From the Turkish perspective, the BSEC has fulfilled its initial task in terms of trade and
as a facilitator during the transformation of the newly independent states into market
economies. The Turkish Chairmanship has three salient priorities:
Encouraging further domestic reforms in the BSEC member countries towards achieving
market based and private sector driven economies. The elementary steps have been taken
in the region’s transition economies. However, parts of the region have begun to suffer
from the ‘oil curse’ and there is an urgent need to diversify export goods in order to
integrate into the global value chain. To this end, the Turkish Chairmanship is expected
132 UNFOLDING THE BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION VIEWS FROM THE REGION