The summit and the 61st PABSEC General Assembly are being held on May 4–5 in Ankara.
The organization consists of 13 member states. Only 4 speakers of the parliaments took part in the meeting: Armenia, North Macedonia, Serbia and the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye Mustafa Şentop. The other delegations were represented by deputy speakers and other members of parliaments.
The Ukrainians
tried to interrupt the speech of the acting head of the Russian delegation, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Development of Civil Society Olga Timofeyeva
Olga Victorovna
by shouting anti-Russian slogans and unfurling flags. However, they did not manage
to interrupt the speech.
Olga Timofeyeva stressed: “The PABSEC was established 30 years ago on the initiative of the key Black Sea powers — Russia and Türkiye. We used parliamentary dimension to develop economies together. But unfortunately, the platform, which was aimed at solving economic problems, is now in crisis and is used just for political battles. The credentials of the Russian delegation have not been confirmed for 2 years under various pretexts.”
She emphasized that Russia was still interested in the resumption of the constructive cooperation at the PABSEC and added: “It is time to address the issues and challenges that exist in the Black Sea region. There are a lot of them! We should remember that we represent our nations, our citizens. All the national delegations should make efforts to overcome the crisis.”
Olga Timofeyeva presented the results of the investigation conducted by the Russian parliament on the issue related to the creation of the US biological laboratories on the territories of the PABSEC member states and stressed: “We will soon mark the sacred day for all of us — the end of World War II. Now more than ever it is important for all of us to protect the monuments, protect history, to prevent any attempts to rewrite it!”
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation was established in 1993 on the initiative of Russia and Turkey. The Parliamentary Assembly consists of the parliaments of 13 states: Azerbaijan, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine. 6 more countries: Belarus, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, Slovakia, and 13 organizations have observer status. Türkiye currently chairs the PABSEC. Ukraine will chair the PABSEC for the next 6 months.
