The security impact of illegal annexation of Crimea on the Tatar community in Romania
The security impact of illegal annexation of Crimea on the Tatar community in Romania

Summary/Abstract: In today's geopolitical equation, the Black Sea is an area of "great strategic importance" (Jens Stoltenberg 2022) and has constantly been characterised by tensions in various forms. After 2014, the Black Sea area has become a hotspot, where soft-power politics have taken second place to the conventional war unleashed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, preceded by the illegal annexation of Crimea. Romania, a NATO member state and an important factor of stability in the Black Sea area, shares an important element of the societal component of Black Sea security: the ethnic Tatar community, which is directly connected to the Crimean conflict, given its origins with the Tatars on the peninsula. The purpose of this article is therefore to point out that the increased focus on the defence component following the annexation of Crimea, as a result of the militarisation of the peninsula and of the Black Sea basin by the Russian Federation, must be complemented by potential non-military vulnerabilities, in this case of a societal nature. The conclusions of the article will highlight that the societal dimension of security is important and needs increased attention from the authorities, as any challenge can become a vulnerability at anytime, and also that a constant soft-power policy focused on the identity component can lead in time to the Russian Federation assuming the role of a kin-state at least for a part of the Tatar community in Romania.

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