| Summary/Abstract |
THE Black Sea region, which was on the fringe of the global political scene during the Cold War, has become ground zero for the formation of the new world order, and no matter how one sees this region's geopolitical configuration, Crimea plays one of the principal roles in it.1 Control of the peninsula guarantees control of territories north of the Black Sea, just as control of the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits means control of the south of the region. For two millennia, imperial ambitions focused simultaneously on Crimea and the Straits. This formula for regional stability and development effectively amounts to shared control by different nations. Over centuries of conflict and cooperation, Turkey and Russia have developed a mechanism for such control and are not prepared to lose it or have it watered down.
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