Subject:

Reading and Researching on the Economic History of the Ottoman Empire-The

Republic of Turkey

Paper research:
Political and Economic Relations between Turkey and Romania
throughout History

Professor:
Nevin Coşar

Student:
Diana-Ioana Dinu

2019
 A Brief History of Romania–Turkey Relations

Introduction

Romania occupies, roughly, ancient Dacia, which became a Roman province in the 2nd
and 3rd centuries A.D.( "second millennium”).
After the Romans left the region in the 3rd century, migrating peoples, including the
Goths, Huns, Slavs, Bulgars and Hungarians swept across this country from the 4th to the 10th
centuries, each leaving their mark on the local culture, language and gene pool.
Romanians survived in village communities and gradually assimilated the Slavs and other
peoples who settled there. By the 10th century a fragmented feudal system ruled by a military
class appeared.

Romania and the Ottoman Empire

The relations between Romania and the Ottoman Empire had their origins in the common
history of the two peoples, who lived together over the centuries in the same geographical area.
After the long and terrible period of invasions of all sorts of migrating peoples, the
history of Romania became in essence that of the two Romanian principalities—Moldavia and
Walachia—and of Transylvania, which for most of the time was a Hungarian dependency.
The princes of Walachia (in 1417) and of Moldavia (mid-16th century) became vassals of
the Ottoman Empire, but they retained considerable independence.

The 18th Century

An alliance (1711) of the princes of Moldavia and Walachia with Peter I of Russia led to
Turkish domination of Romania.
Until 1821 the Turkish sultans appointed governors, usually chosen from among the
Phanariots - Greek residents of Constantinople. The governors and their subordinates reduced the
Romanian people (except for a few great landlords, the boyars) to a group of nomadic shepherds
enserfed peasants.

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The 19th Century

When, in 1821, Alexander Ypsilanti raised the Greek banner of revolt in Moldavia, the
Romanians (who had more grievances against the Greek Phanariots than against the Turks)
helped the Turks to expel the Greeks.
In 1822 the Turks agreed to appoint Romanians as governors of the principalities; after
the Russo- Turkish War of 1828–29, during which Russian forces occupied Moldavia and
Walachia, the governors were given life tenure. Although the two principalities technically
remained within the Ottoman Empire, they actually became Russian protectorates.

The Congress of Paris (1856)

Russian troops did not evacuate Romania until 1854, during the Crimean War, when they
were replaced by a neutral Austrian force. The Congress of Paris (1856) established Moldavia
and Walachia as principalities under Turkish suzerainty and under the guarantee of the European
powers, and it awarded S Bessarabia to Moldavia.

Alexander John Cuza

The election (1859) of Alexander John Cuza as prince of both Moldavia and Walachia
prepared the way for the official union (1861–1862) of the two principalities as Romania. Cuza
freed (1864) the peasants from certain servile obligations and distributed some land (confiscated
from religious orders) to them.

The Kingdom of Romania

In 1866 Carol I of the house of Hohenzollern- Sigmaringen was chosen as a king of

Romania. A moderately liberal constitution was adopted in 1866. In 1877, Romania joined
Russia in its war on Turkey.

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 At the Congress of Berlin (1878), Romania gained full independence but was obliged to
restore S Bessarabia to Russia and to accept N Dobrogea in its place. In 1881, Romania was
proclaimed a kingdom.

Modern Perspectives

On 4/16 November1878, independent Romania and the Ottoman Empire established

diplomatic relations.
D. Bratianu, Plenipotentiary Minister and Extraordinary Representative of Romania in
Istanbul, presented his letters of accreditation to Sultan Abdul-Hamid the Second.
On 3/15 December 1878, Süleyman Sabit Bey was appointed in the same position in
Bucharest.

Romanian –Turkish Diplomatic Relations

After 1878, Romania and Turkey turned from adversaries to be example of friendly ties.
Since then both countries have built a strong Partnership centered upon their common
experience able to facilitate understanding issues the whole region being confronted with.

The 20th Century

In 1934, when Turkey was led by the great state-man Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Romania
together with Turkey, Yugoslavia and Greece set up the Balkan Entente, one year after the
signature by the Romanian Foreign Minister Nicolae Titulescu and the Turkish Foreign Minister
Tevfik Rustu Aras of the "Treaty of Friendship, Non-aggression, Arbitration and Conciliation
between Romania and the Republic of Turkey".

The Relaunch of the Romanian-Turkish Relations after 1989:

• The diplomatic legations of the two countries in Bucharest and Istanbul were brought in
1938 to the level of Embassies.
• This tradition was reflected in and influenced after 1989, when both countries witnessed
an ever ascending trend.

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 • Romania has an embassy in Ankara and two consulates-general in Istanbul and İzmir.
• Turkey has an embassy in Bucharest and a consulate-general in Constanţa.
• Both countries are full members of the BLACKSEAFOR and BSEC.

The 21st Century

 President Ahmet Necdet Sezer visited Romania between July 8–9, 2004.
 President Traian Băsescu visited Turkey between September 28–29, 2005.
 Romania joined the European Union (EU) on January 1, 2007. Romania also declared its
public support for Turkey and shares a privileged economic relation with Turkey.

Turkey - A Very Important Economic Investor in Romania:

Turkey ranks third among investors in Romania by number of registered companies and
15th based on foreign direct investment.
Romania and Turkey have been developing excellent bilateral relations, and there is great
potential to advance them even further. Trade is one of the key fields of cooperation.

Romania Supports Turkey’s Accession to the European Union:

The political dialogue is very dynamic, interested in maintaining the path in all fields of
cooperation.
As NATO partners, Romania and Turkey (a member of NATO since 1952) cooperate
both in the field of security and at the international level.

Turkey’s Accession to the European Union - A Win-Win Process:

Turkey stands at the cusp of both Christendom and Islam; as a modernising democracy, it
can only benefit from interaction with Europe.
Conversely, it can benefit Europe by acting as a bridgehead between Europe and the
Middle-East. It can also prove to the world at large, that an Islamic country is capable of
embracing democratic ideals, without losing its identity.

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Summary

On 4/16 November1878, independent Romania and the Ottoman Empire established

diplomatic relations. D. Bratianu, Plenipotentiary Minister and Extraordinary Representative of
Romania in Istanbul, presented his letters of accreditation to Sultan Abdul-Hamid the Second.
On 3/15 December 1878, Süleyman Sabit Bey was appointed in the same position in Bucharest.
The diplomatic legations of the two countries in Bucharest and Istanbul were brought in
1938 to the level of Embassies.
The relationships between Romania and the Ottoman Empire had their origins in the
common history of the two peoples, who lived together over the centuries in the same
geographical area.
After 1878,when Romania and Turkey turned from adversaries to be example of friendly ties
during 134 years of their diplomatic relations both countries have built a strong Partnership
centered upon their common experience able to facilitate understanding issues the whole region
being confronted with.
In 1934, when Turkey was led by the great state-man Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Romania
together with Turkey, Yugoslavia and Greece set up the Balkan Entente, one year after the
signature by the Romanian Foreign Minister Nicolae Titulescu and the Turkish Foreign Minister
Tevfik Rustu Aras of the "Treaty of Friendship, Non-aggression, Arbitration and Conciliation
between Romania and the Republic of Turkey".
This tradition was reflected in and influenced by the relaunch of the Romanian-Turkish
relations after 1989, when they witnessed an ever ascending trend.
Turkey has constantly supported Romania‘s candidature for NATO, Romania having
participated for the first time as a NATO member at the Istanbul Summit between 28-29 June
2004, which also has a symbolic value for the level of the relations between the two countries; in
its turn, Romania supports Turkey’s aspirations for European integration.

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 Economic Relations

 In history:
“Among Turkey’s relations with its neighbors, Romania has a special place, as relations are
grounded on a common history”
H.E. Mr. Nihat Zeybekci, Minister of Economy of the Republic of Turkey:

October 29 marks the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 and it is a symbol of the
beginning of a new era in our country’s history. Today, we are celebrating the 91st anniversary
of our Republic with great joy and pride.
The Republic is the fruit of the existential struggle of the Turkish nation, made under the
leadership of great commander Atatürk.
The goal of the Republic of Turkey is laid forth as “attaining the level of contemporary
civilization” by the founders, an objective which we at present, still strongly adhere to. This
vision necessitates a strong economy for a full success, and closer cooperation with all of our
trade and economic partners.
Presently, Turkey is the 17th biggest economy in the world and has set targets to achieve
at the centenary of the Republic.
I am confident that by the time we celebrate the 100th anniversary of our Republic, Turkey will
become one of the leading economies of the world. In that year, we aim reaching at 2 trillion
dollars of GDP, 25.000 dollars of GDP per capita, 500 billion dollars of export sales of goods,
150 billion dollars of export sale of services, an unemployment rate below 5% and a single digit
inflation rate.
As working harder on the economy front, Turkey develops its economic relations with
the neighboring countries. Among those, Romania has a special place, as relations are grounded
on a common history and culture.
Obviously, the relationship between Romania and Turkey has its roots deep in history
and geography as our people lived together over the centuries in the same region. This very
much facilitates and supports the strong partnership, which we aim to build with Romania upon
our common experience.

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 In fact, after 1989, we witnessed an ever-ascending trend over the years.
Turkey constantly supported Romania‘s candidature for NATO and Romania participated for the
first time as a NATO member at the Istanbul Summit in June 2004. In its turn, Romania supports
Turkey’s aspirations for European integration.
In this context, every effort is being made to expand and reflect the excellent political
relations between Turkey and Romania to economic and commercial areas.
We must emphasize the quality of the high level dialogue between Turkey and Romania.
Almost every year since 1991, there have been exchanges of visits at either Presidential or Prime
Ministerial level. There are countless Ministerial level visits. I visited Romania last month and
met with Prime Minister H.E. Victor Ponta and other Minister colleagues as well as
representatives of the business world. This visit was very fruitful and I had the chance to
communicate various topics of cooperation at the highest levels. I noted that both countries enjoy
a very privileged status of bilateral relations.
In fact, our relations were crowned with the Strategic Partnership Declaration, which was
signed in Ankara on 12 December 2011 by Presidents of our countries. Later, the Strategic
Partnership Action Plan was signed in Ankara on 14 March 2013 in order to materialize the
objectives set forth in the Declaration. The “Strategic Partnership” established between the two
countries and the respective Action Plan are effective tools for the enhancement of economic
cooperation, leading to successful businesses developed by investors and businessmen of the two
countries.
In addition, the Turkish-Romanian Joint Economic Commission (JEC) is another
platform where, specifically, economic and trade relations are discussed and stake holders are
brought together.
The dedicated ongoing work carried out by the Governments, investors and businessmen
of both countries is reflected in the statistics.
As the Governments in both countries are laying the foundations and preparing the
ground for improving business environment, Romanian and Turkish businessmen, who have
been actively working together since 1989 have become the most important asset in further
developing Turkish-Romanian economic relations. Indeed, they have come a long way.
The trade volume between the two countries, which was only 873 million dollars in 2001,
reached to 6.2 billion dollars in 2013, showing a remarkable development in the last decade. As a

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trading partner, Turkey ranks number one for Romania after the EU. The two governments
agreed on 10 billion dollars of trade volume target for the coming years, given the existing
potential in both countries.
Furthermore, the Turkish investments in Romania in recent years soared considerably.
There are currently more than 10 thousand Turkish companies operating in Romania having a
capital of about 5 billion dollars. There is a wide spectrum of Turkish companies from small and
medium-sized enterprises to large scale businesses operating in Romania in many different areas
like retail trade, manufacture and service sectors, reflecting the confidence shown in the
Romanian economy. Finance, transportation, white goods, wood industries, food production,
agriculture, construction, media and health industries are among the wide range of sectors where
Turkish companies have been operating.
These figures however, still do not reflect the actual potentials of our two countries. We
should continue to work for increasing these investment figures to a level that two friendly
economies have.
This understanding in these proverbs reflects the spirit of friendship and cooperation between our
countries and puts the responsibility of further improvement of bilateral relations upon our
shoulders.
Keeping these in mind, I would like to re-emphasize my conviction for the bright future
of Turkish-Romanian bilateral relations in all fields. I have no doubt that we will achieve the
desired level of economic and trade cooperation between our countries before the 100th
anniversary of the Turkish Republic.

 Economic Relations Nowadays

EXPORTS IMPORTS BALANCE VOLUME
2013 2.600 3.600 -1.000 6.200
2014 3.008 3.362 -354 6.370
2015 2.817 2.600 217 5.417
2014/2015% -6,4 -22,7 161 -15

Source: TÜİK (million USD)

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 Turkey and Romania are each other’s largest trading partners in the Balkans.
In 2015, Turkey’s exports to Romania were 2,8 billion USD and its imports from
Romania amounted to 2,6 billion USD. Bilateral trade volume between the two countries has
reached to 5,4 billion USD. This figure represents a 15 % annual decline in bilateral trade as
compared to 2014.
Turkey is among the largest investors in Romania with its current value of investment
exceeding 6 billion USD including those coming from third countries. Currently, around 7.000
Turkish companies are actively operating in Romania. Two Turkish banks, Credit Europe and
Garanti Bank Romania, are also operating in Romania. Romania continues to offer significant
opportunities for both Turkish exports and investments.
In Romania, the construction projects which have been completed by Turkish contractors
so far amount to 6,2 billion USD.

441.000 Romanian tourists visited Turkey in 2015.

According to the Department of Foreign Trade and International Relations within the
Ministry of Economy, Romanian exports to Turkey were down by 8.7 percent year-on-year to
EUR 2.1 billion in 2015, while Turkish imports were up by 17.1 percent to EUR 2.2 billion.
In the first four months of 2016, Romania’s exports to Turkey fell by 19.7 percent to
EUR 766 million, while imports from the Balkan country had gained 20 percent to EUR 824.5
million compared to the same period of last year, according to provisional data from the Ministry
of Economy
Turkey’s total investment stock in Romania amounts to roughly 1 percent of the total
foreign direct investments (FDI).

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 Bilateral relations

Political Relations - Regional and International Cooperation

At international level, Romania and Turkey cooperate within the United Nations
Organization (UNO) and other UN agencies and in many other international organizations and
forums.
As members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
Romania and Turkey are being involved actively in a number of OSCE actions in the Balkans
and other regions.
Romania works together with Turkey in order to strengthen the stability, the security and
the good neighborly relations in the region, to intensify economic and commercial cooperation,
including trans-frontier cooperation, to improve the transportation infrastructure,
communications, energy, to promote investments, to develop cooperation in humanitarian, social
and cultural domains and last but not least, to increase cooperation on issues related to justice
and home affairs in order to combat organized crime, illicit drugs and weapons trafficking,
illegal migration and terrorism.
In this respect, both States actively collaborate for the transformation of the Black Sea
region in a zone of security, democracy and prosperity as well as for using the framework of
other mechanisms existing in the South East Europe, South East European Cooperation Process
(SEECP), Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), the South East European Law Enforcement
Center (SELEC) a. s. o.
One of the factors which stimulate the process of building closer relations between
Romania and Turkey are the strategic interests of the two countries, which overlap to a great
extent. Turkey has been actively supporting Romania’s accession to NATO, and Romania is now
offering its strong support to Turkish aspirations for EU membership. The two countries are also
engaged in the project of building the missile defence shield. For Romania, the strategic
partnership with Turkey has an additional geopolitical benefit: this is supposed to be an element
of weakening the Russian-Turkish domination in the Black Sea region. In turn, for Turkey, this is
an element of its policy of broader engagement in its immediate neighbourhood and
strengthening its position in its dealings with Russia.

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 Romania and Turkey have been co-operating closely in a number of regional
organisations. However, they differ in their visions for the Black Sea basin. Bucharest is a
staunch supporter of ‘internationalisation’ of this region, i.e. increasing engagement from the
USA and the EU. It also wants a revision of the Montreux Convention to be considered, which
legitimises Turkey’s control of the Bosphorus and Dardanelle Straits. In turn, Turkey does not
wish external actors to become more active in this region and wishes to retain control of the
Black Sea straits.
An important sign of establishing closer political relations between Romania and Turkey
is their robustly developing economic co-operation. In 2010, Turkey was the fifth largest trade
partner for Romania and the first among non-EU member states. However, at the same time,
Turkey was ranked only among the top twenty foreign investors in Romania. Bucharest is
interested in gaining direct investments from Turkey because it is planning to sell part of the
shares in state-controlled energy companies next year (including minority blocks of shares in
Transelectrica, Transgaz and Romgaz, and majority stakes in electric energy companies). Closer
co-operation with Turkey is also expected to accelerate the implementation of energy projects,
including the Southern Gas Corridor or the Constanta-Istanbul electric cable running along the
seabed.

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REFERENCES:

 https://www.slideshare.net/margaritgr/history-of-romanian-turkish-relations

 http://www.mfa.gov.tr/relations-between-turkey-and-romania.en.mfa

 https://www.nineoclock.ro/2014/10/28/%E2%80%9Camong-turkey%E2%80%99s-
relations-with-its-neighbors-romania-has-a-special-place-as-relations-are-grounded-on-a-
common-history%E2%80%9D/

 https://ankara.mae.ro/en/node/393

 https://ankara.mae.ro/en/node/396

 https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/analyses/2011-12-21/romania-intensifying-
relations-turkey

 http://business-review.eu/news/analysis-what-does-turkeys-situation-mean-for-romanias-
economy-117186

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