The Center for National Strategy (USMER) has organized an international conference on the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea on July 18 and 19 in Istanbul, Türkiye. A number Turkish and international politicians and experts participated in the conference that ended with the final declaration that UWI documents below.
In the coming days, UWI will also publish speeches held on the conference.
Istanbul, 19 July 2025
The Eastern Mediterranean – Black Sea Conference 2025 convened in Istanbul on 18-19 July 2025, upon the invitation of the National Strategy Centre (USMER). Representatives of a wide array of political institutions and strategy experts hailing from 17 countries took part in the conference. After two days of presentations and debates, it was resolved to release the following Final Declaration to the World Public Opinion.
1. Today, the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean have become the focal point of global conflicts. The challenges and confrontations shaping the future of humanity are concentrated in this region where our homelands are located.
2. From the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus and the north of the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean, from Egypt, Libya and Cyprus via Palestine and Lebanon, Syria, Türkiye, Iraq and Iran to the Strait of Hormuz, Yemen and the Sea of Oman, a single front has emerged against the threat of the globalist West allied with the United States and Israel. This front is not only a shared frontline of the states and peoples of the region: It is the very frontline of humanity. For the sake of the independence and sovereignty of our states, the integrity of our homelands, the freedom and welfare of our peoples, we join forces along every single front of our region against Atlantic imperialism and hereby declare to the entire humankind our resolve to fight. The attempt by Atlantic imperialists to put forth the concept of ‘freedom’ against state security was stillborn. In Western Asia, we see ethnic, religious and sectarian differences not as a cause for division but as a source of richness.
3. Attempts to expand NATO eastward in the north of the Black Sea target all the countries and peoples of the Black Sea and Mediterranean. We are pinpointing the artificial, hostile hysteria of European globalists along this front and calling upon all patriots and workers of Europe to fight against the war barons of Berlin, Paris and London. The resistance staged by Russia and everyone else along this front is for the sake of our common future. A NATO expanding towards the east is a NATO marching to its death.
4. In the face of US and European globalists’ attempts to erect walls among the countries of the Caucasus region and pit them against each other, we raise a strong call for unity and solidarity. The inclusion of South Caucasus countries – Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia- into NATO would provoke hostilities in the region and escalate threats against all Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean countries. Türkiye must use her veto power against such an initiative.
5. We strongly condemn the aggression of US imperialism and Israeli Zionism, which from 1991 onwards have attacked Iraq and Syria with arms, threatened Türkiye and Iran, unleashed divisive and fanatical terrorist organizations upon us, and shed the blood of millions of our sisters and brothers, all with a view to establishing a second Israeli state under the name of ‘Kurdistan.’ Iran’s success in forcing Israel and The US to backdown in the recent 12-Day War is a significant contribution to the defense of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. We condemn the attempts to suppress Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy efforts and to divide Iran. Most recently, Syria’s struggle to defend its state and territorial integrity against Israeli attacks is, yet again, a part of our joint struggle.
6. We call on all states of the region to reinforce the heroic struggle of the Palestinian state and people in the face of Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank -not with words, but with armed defense. We condemn the attempts to impose the so-called Abraham Accords on Syria and call on the Syrian leadership and the leadership of other countries in the region not to be led by the promises of Israel and The United States and to support the creation of an independent Palestine. We all stand together for a permanent peace and for the decisive victory of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. We stand with Palestinians, and we feel like as if we are all Palestinian.
7. Seizing control of the US and NATO bases that jeopardize peace, stability and development in Western Asia, spanning from the Black Sea, the Aegean shores and Cyprus to Eastern Anatolia, is not only a national duty for the states of the region, but also their responsibility towards their neighbors and humanity.
8. The naval exercises conducted by the United States, Israel and some regional powers in the Eastern Mediterranean, under the names Noble Dina and Nemesis constitute, in our view, a threat to the ‘blue homelands’ and terrestrial homelands of all the countries in the region: We hereby express our resolve to defend our shared homelands, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, together with their resources, against this threat.
9. In order to reinforce bastions of resistance against Western globalist aggression, we propose all states across the world, especially those in our region, to acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory, and also to recognize the statehood of Republic of Abkhazia and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
10. We call for intensified security cooperation between the countries of the region and non-Western countries, primarily China and Russia. Maintaining Türkiye’s as well as Russia’s military presence in collaboration with Syrian government in Syria will help maintain the balance of power in the region, providing a counterweight to the US and NATO and easing tensions. Close military cooperation with China will help ensure independence from the West and ensure the security of maritime trade routes from the Persian Gulf to the Bosporus.
11. It is urgent to put an end to the West-led intervention in Libya, support the legitimate government of Libya, and assure the country’s territorial integrity. Libya’s legitimate government, recognized by the UN, has every right to reunite its homeland by all means – this also constitutes the unique solution for peace in the Mediterranean. Libya’s oil belongs to the Libyan state and people. We call on the government of Libya and other countries in the region to refrain from participating in Western plans to deport refugees and migrants. If Western plans for a large-scale forced return of migrants to the southern Mediterranean countries are successful, the region will inevitably face economic difficulties, increased crime rates, and new political challenges related to the reintegration of migrants into local society. The countries of the region must act as a united bloc against attempts by Europe and the United States to destabilize the situation by returning migrants.
12. A joint struggle should be waged to lift the official and de facto sanctions and isolation, embargoes imposed upon Iran, Russia, Syria, Türkiye, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Abkhazia, the People’s Republic of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Venezuela and Cuba, and circumstances should be created for free trade, economic collaboration and mutual respect to sovereignties between countries. So as to put an end to the domination of the dollar and to uphold the welfare of the peoples of the world, Trade in National Currencies should be developed. We share the efforts of the People’s Republic of China in advancing trade and production through the Belt and Road Initiative. We are partners of the Belt and Road Initiative in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea region
13. The globalist system of the West has begun to destroy both humankind and nature. The Western system has embarked upon an epoch of decay, where it tries to turn women into men and men into women, normalize drugs and suicide, oppress women, weaken family ties, shatter societies, and annihilate everything that is human. This system is collapsing. The humankind is faced with problems that can no longer be solved through self-interest and selfishness. Under these conditions, across the horizon of humanity, there appears a brand new, enlightened civilization that upholds the independence of states and humanism, and hinges on sharing and the public sector.
14. The US imperialism’s claim to be the unique master of the world has sunk into the quagmire. Now, the Multipolar World is no longer a sliver of hope, but an objective reality. In the face of the Western system in collapse, we share and salute all efforts of countries across the world to join forces in regional alliances such as BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, African Union, Latin American Union, ASEAN, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Arabic Liga, Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and Organization of Turkic States, as well as to liberate the United Nations from Western mandate so as to respond to the demands of states seeking independence and of peoples seeking freedom.
15. A brand new world is being built. The waves of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean are rising high for the grand future of the humankind. Struggle and solidarity for this grand future are our duties towards humanity. For this purpose, we announce to the world public our resolve to convene the Eastern Mediterranean Black Sea Conference every two years in a different port of our seas.
Our ‘Blue Homeland’ constitutes a boundary between us and Western Imperialism. We are the common defense guardians of this frontier.
The Mediterranean and The Black Sea maritime zones belong to the peoples of Mediterranean and Black Sea.
Transatlantic interventions will drown in the waters of Mediterranean and The Black Sea.
The future is in our hands.