By IPS Correspondents
ISTANBUL, Jun 27 2002 (IPS)

Black Sea countries have pledged greater co-operation among themselves to end terrorism and conflict between member states.

A three-day meeting of leaders from the Black Sea Economic Co-operation (BSEC) in Istanbul that ended Thursday sought new paths to ending the many conflicts in the region.

The BSEC brought together leaders from Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Turkey, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania.

The agreement by leaders to tackle “terrorism and organised crime” relates particularly to the Caucasian region that has seen a spate of conflicts. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in conflict over the majority Armenian population in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave within Azerbaijan territory. Much of the area came under Armenian domination after a war in 1991-92, but the enclave is still a point of conflict between the two.

Georgia and Russia have been in conflict over Russian ‘protection’ for the self-declared republics of Osetia and Abkhazia, both formally Georgian territory. Turkey and Russia are at odds over Russian claims that Turkey is providing protection to Chechen militants. Turkey and Greece are engaged in an old dispute for control of the Aegean continental shelf and over the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Several of these conflicts were discussed at the meeting. Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders came together to discuss solutions to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Turkish foreign minister Ismail Cem and Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian held separate talks over relations between their two countries. Relations between Turkey and Armenia had deteriorated in the wake of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

“I cannot say that we have entered a new era in Turkish-Armenian relations, but we have taken a new step forward,” Oskanian told journalists after his meeting with Cem.

In their final communiqué the BSEC leaders converged to denounce “all forms and aspects of terrorism that threaten peace and security,” and declared their determination to take “all necessary steps against terrorism and organised crime.”

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer spoke in his inaugural speech Tuesday of the “necessity of furthering economic relations to protect the member countries from the negative effects of globalisation.” It is time the BSEC “reaches its natural borders,” he said.

The leaders in their communiqué also called for increased co-operation with the European Union, which is considering inclusion of some BSEC countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.

The summit also hosted an International Energy Conference organised by the BSEC Business Council. The conference discussed oil and gas extraction, and transportation issues in the Caspian, Black Sea and Mediterranean regions.

Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia and Greece are competing for new transportation routes for oil extracted from the Caspian Sea. Turkey, backed by the U.S. wants a pipeline from Baku across Turkey to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Yumurtalik. Russia has proposed pumping oil to Novorossysk and then transporting it by sea. Other options were also proposed at the conference.

The BSEC was set up at a meeting in Istanbul in 1992. “The past decade has proven the value of BSEC’s value as a platform for understanding and co-operation,” leaders said in their communiqué.

Not everyone agrees. In its tenth year, the BSEC remains far from the its glorious beginning in 1992 when former Turkish president Turgut Ozal called the Black Sea countries together with Albania and Greece to come together in an economic cooperation based on “democracy, market economy and open society.”

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