2nd International Balkan Congress Final Declaration

The Balkans is one of the most important regions for Turkey. There are many historical, social, economic and political reasons which make the Balkans important for Turkey. Turkey is a Balkan country not only for its geo­graphical location but also historical and socio-cultural aspects. Turkey has deep and intensive historical and socio-cultural relations and connections with the Balkan nations and countries.

Since the last quarter of the 19th century, migration waves have started from the Balkan lands to Anatolia as a result of declining and withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire. The waves of migrations from the Balkans to Turkey have created approximately 7 million Turkish citizens of the Balkan origin in the present Turkey. These Balkan origin people of Turkey have still intensive and close relations with their relatives who live in the Balkan countries.

The Balkans is very important region for Turkey also because of eco­nomic and political relations. Turkey's economic and political relations with the Balkan countries improved significantly especially in the post-socialism era. Among Turkey and the Balkan countries, mutual visits of statesmen have increased and many bilateral and multilateral agreements have been signed since collapse of socialism in the region. Within this context of recent devel­oping relations, Turkish companies run into the Balkan countries in the post-socialism era. As a natural consequence of this, a significant increase has been occurred on direct foreign investments and mutual commercial relations among Turkey and the Balkan countries. However, unfortunately, the existing level of these mutual economic relations has not yet reach to the existing reach potential of the region. Thus, realistic, functional and workable strategies should be developed in order to further the existing economic and political relations and to actualize the existing reach potential in the region.

In addition to these reasons, the Balkans is very important region within context of Turkey's relations with Europe forasmuch as the region is gate to Europe for Turkey. The connection roads between Turkey and European coun­tries cross over this region. Existence of peaceful and stable condition in the Balkans is very important for both Turkey's security and continuity of eco­nomic and political relations with Europe. For this reason, since foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, Turkish foreign policy has aimed and sup­ported building peaceful stable condition in the region and always tried to cooperate with the other Balkan countries for this purpose.

The 1990s was a period in which the Cold War ended and socialist regimes collapsed. In this period, the Balkan countries and communities came in a radical transformation and changing process. Within this process, the socioeconomic structures of the Balkan countries were reconstructed and reformed within the context of free market economy. As a result of the recon­struction and reformation, the Balkan countries entered in the intensive process of integration into international economy based on principles of free market economy.

Moreover, another important development is the Balkan countries' inte­gration process into the European Union (UE) after the regime changes. Slovenia in 2004, Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 joined to the EU. Croatia and Turkey are two Balkan countries which have maintain full membership nego­tiations with the European Union since October 2005. Relations among the EU and Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have been maintained within the context of Stabilization and Association Agreements. Also the most important goal and priority of the Republic of Kosovo's foreign policy is the EU membership. That is, after the socialism era, the Balkan states began to reconstruct and reform their socioe­conomic structures according the EU criteria. This reconstruction and refor­mation process is still continuing. On the other hand, Hellenic Republic, as an EU member since 1981, has huge experiences for sharing with the other Balkan countries about the EU membership process.

All these radical changes and transformation process have brought new economic, political, social and cultural problems in the Balkan agenda. Definitely, the most destructive and painful problem in the Balkan lands was wars erupted in the 1990s. Painful memoirs of the wars are still alive and complicate problems in the region. Moreover, socioeconomic problems such as unemployment and poverty unfortunately haven't been yet overcome com­pletely. Therefore, building peace, democracy, socioeconomic development and stability are still the most important issues and tasks for the Balkan states and nations.

With aim of solving the existing problems and actualizing the existing huge socioeconomic potential in the Balkans, socioeconomic cooperation among the Balkan countries should be developed and socioeconomic devel­opment process of the region should be continued successfully. In other words, socioeconomic cooperation and development are major prerequisites for over­coming existing problems and for building sustainable peace, democracy and stability in the Balkans.

In order to supply these needs and reach objectives, the "2nd International Balkans Congress" under the subtitle of "Socioeconomic Cooperation and Development in the Balkans' was organized by cooperation of East-West Thrace Municipal Union (TRAKYAKENT), Namık Kemal University and Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM) under leadership of Tekirdağ Governorship and by participation of delegations from 12 Balkan countries on 24-26 April 2009. Organization of the Congress in Tekirdağ which is demographically and geographically intersection point between the Balkans and Anatolia as a Balkan city made more meaningful the Congress.

As a result of the Congress, a consensus emerged on the following topics:

1. There are some crucial problems such as scarcity of investment and production, technological backwardness on production, deficiency in infra­structure, unemployment, poverty and brain drain in the Balkan countries. In order to overcome these problems and to achieve socioeconomic develop­ment, socioeconomic cooperation among the Balkan countries should be improved.
2. There are three major obstacles to improving socioeconomic coopera­tion and development process in the Balkans: Firstly, internal political and social problems such as political instability, corruption, criminal organization, fragile and deficient democracy, and ethnic issues; secondly, political disputes among the Balkan countries; and thirdly, external actors' struggle for hege­mony over the region. Collective works and policies among the Balkan coun­tries should be formed and developed against these obstacles.
3. Together with transformation into free market economy, commercial relations among the Balkan countries have been developed significantly. However, existing potential on the regional trade has not been achieved yet. Regional trade volume that is profitable for all Balkan countries should be increased on the principle of mutual benefits. For this purpose, multilateral commercial conventions should be concluded, developed and implemented.

4. Together with transformation into free market economy from social­ism, the Balkan countries and communities have integrated into world econo­my and European Union economy. Thanks to this integration process, foreign capital influx and direct foreign investments in the region have increased dra­matically. This process should be supported and continued since foreign capi­tal influx and direct foreign investments will provide useful economic resources to the Balkan countries which suffer greatly from scarcity on invest­ment and production.
5. Collective projects for living together on the basis of respect to each other in the Balkans should be developed against radical political projects which oppress and exclude the others and result in discriminations and con­flicts among the Balkan nations. "Projects for living together" should be based on democratic principles and collective heritage derived from collective back­ground of the region.
6. Solution of conflicts and problems among the Balkan countries through peaceful methods should be developed and supported because peace is the most important prerequisite for regional socioeconomic cooperation and development. For this aim, regional collective policies which will diminish regional conflicts and risks should be developed and embraced.
7. To setup relations only on official state level is not enough to contin­ue and improve socioeconomic cooperation process among the Balkan coun­tries. Also, civil relations should be improved among the Balkan peoples. For this purpose, "the Balkan civil society communication forum" should be established and developed. Civil society organizations, universities and media institutions of the region will play crucial role in establishment and develop­ment of the forum.
8. Turkey's economic, commercial and social relations with the Balkan countries improved significantly in the post-socialism era. This process should be supported and furthered.
9. International Balkan Congress project has transcended threshold of institutionalization process together with organization of the second congress. The Balkan Congresses should be continued in the coming years under prior­ity issues and actual major themes of the Balkans.