Turkey is ok with both European and non-European Western Balkans

3 months ago
15

Cross-border Talks invited Marian Karagyozov - a Balkanologist from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, for a talk on Turkey's role in international relations in the Black Sea region and the Western Balkans.
Marian discussed Turkey's specific role as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine, about the energy cooperation between Turkey and Russia, about Ankara's attitude towards Western Balkans and Bulgarian-Turkish strategic cooperation.
The bottom line is that Turkey is the most populous and most dynamic economy in Southeastern Europe and that makes it a magnet for any of the small countries in the region. Also, it has the resources and the strategic mindset to play complex geopolitical games and be perceived as neutral, while many other countries in the region are forced to pick sites in the war in Ukraine.

0:10 Intro and presentation of the interlocutor
1:33 Turkey's role as a mediator between the West and "the East"
4:45 Turkish-Russian energy cooperation
8:56 Turkey's position on Western Balkans' EU intergration
12:32 The renewal of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh and Turkish-Azerbaidjani relation
15:03 Turkey's stance on the Bosnian political crisis
20:35 The Bulgarian-Turkish cooperation and how much it is valid for the Western Balkans
23:56 Conclusion

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