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, Turkey can equally be seen as a security ‘provider’. Since the Cold War in particular, Ankara’s diplomacy has increasingly reflected the complexity and diversity of Turkey’s geopolitical circumstances. For example, Turkey took the lead role in the establishment of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation (BSEC) in 1992, and the Black Sea Naval Cooperation Task Group (BlackSeaFor) in 2001. In late
weak political figure, but always a force to reckon with. Furthermore, Ozal did more for Turkey outside its borders than any previous leader, having gone abroad more than seventy times during his tenure. He was the initiator of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Region (BSECR or BSEC), the foundations of which were laid in June 1992 in Istanbul, during Ozal’s presidency, but were formally established only in June 1998, long after his death. Turkey, at that time feeling snubbed in Europe despite her contribution to the victory over Iraq, was keen
as it assumed the appearance of just another top-level bureaucratic process. Furthermore, these regional initiatives overlapped with others launched in the same areas by the Commission, the Council of Europe, the Black Sea Economic Cooperation forum, the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative and the World Bank, resulting in ‘cooperation fatigue’. These organisational overlaps also make it difficult to