ABSTRACT
In the Greater Black Sea region, policy-makers in Ankara have sought recognition for Turkey as a benign regional middle power. Although after the unravelling of the Soviet Union, Ankara had initially concentrated on striving to build ties with the so-called Turkic World, the Turkish authorities were also aware of the importance of fostering cooperation in the Greater Black Sea region. Turkey's trade turnover with states in the Greater Black Sea region has continued to expand, with Russia in particular becoming a very significant trade partner. The significance of the Black Sea for the security concerns of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the USA and the European Union (EU) will most probably increase. In its operations to overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Bush administration used the Black Sea as an airspace corridor.
