CONTENTS • Preface – Lieutenant General NICHOLAS MASTRANDONIS, President of the Hellenic Commi- ssion on Military History ................................................................................................................................. 2 •Preface – Major General (Ret) Dr. MIHAIL E. IONESCU, Director of the Institute for Political Studies of Defense and Military History ........................................................................................................................... 3 • The Black Sea and the Beginnings of Hellenic Geopolitics – Dr. PANAGIOTIS FOURAKIS, Historian and Collaborator of the Hellenic Commission on Military History ............................................................... 5 • Greek Cities in the North-Western Pontus – Dr. SERGIU IOSIPESCU, Senior Researcher of the Institute for Political Studies of Defense and Military History ..................................................................................... 8 • The Greeks of the Euxine (Black Sea) in the Ancient and the Middle Ages – Dr. NICHOLAOS SOL. DEPASTAS, Historian-Archaeologist, Sc. Collaborator and Ex Member of the HCMH/HNDGS, Director of the 3rd Office AHD/HAGS ............................................................................................................... 16 • The Byzantine Expansion in the Black Sea Area – Dr. ALEXANDRU MADGEARU, Senior Researcher of the Institute for Political Studies of Defense and Military History........................................................... 22 • Romanians and Greeks in the XVIIth Century – Dr. MIRCEA SOREANU, Senior Researcher of the Institute for Political Studies of Defense and Military History ...................................................................... 32 • The French-German Antagonism in the Balkans before World War I. Finance and Armaments. The Case of Romania and Greece – Professor Dr. IOANNIS ANTONOPOULOS, Associate Member of the Hellenic Commission on Military History .......................................................................................... 37 • Treaty of Bucharest. The Role of Romania in the End of Balkan War II – Dr. EFPRAXIA S. PASCHALIDOU, Historian, Hellenic Commission on Military History ..................................................................................... 44 • The 534 Hellenic Air Squadron in Southern Russia (1919) – KAISAROU-PANTAZOPOULOU TRIANTAFYLLIA, Historian of the Hellenic Air Force History Museum, Member of the Hellenic Commission on Military History ............................................................................................................................................................... 51 • Romania, Greece and the Issues in the Black Sea (1919-1939) – Dr. PETRE OTU, President of the Romanian Commission of Military History ...................................................................................................... 55 • Historical Development of the Legal Regime of the Straits and Access to the Black Sea (Euxeinos Pontos) – Rear Admiral Dr. STYLIANOS POLITIS, Vice President of the Hellenic Commission on Military History .... 63 • The Participation of Romania and Greece at BSEC. Cooperation Theory and Practice in the Balkans – ŞERBAN FILIP CIOCULESCU, Researcher of the Institute for Political Studies of Defense and Military History .......................................................................................................................................... 73 FRONT COVER: The training ship ‘Mircea’, a symbol of Romanian Military Navy, was often a bridge between the romanian and greek sea shores BACK COVER: The transfers and the bases of operation of the 534 Hellenic Squadron in the Allied South Russia Campaign (1919), the Asia Minor Campaign (JUL 1919-AUG 1922) and the river Evros Front. The Red Arrow indicates the route of the Spad XIII in the 534 Squadron’s first mission of transporting the French plane from Odessa to Brăila. The inset shows the flight’s intended course to the Brăila airfield and the plane’s forced landing at Sulina (see the article by Kaisarou-Pantazopoulou Triantafillia) P Review of Military History P 1 PREFACE Lieutenant General NICHOLAS MASTRANDONIS President of the Hellenic Commission on Military History It is a great pleasure and a privilege for myself to preface this second joint Hellenic-Romanian publication under the general topic: “The Black Sea, a Link between Greece and Romania”. In the framework of the “Military Cooperation Programs” between Greece and Romania, that have been in effect since the year 2000, the Hellenic Commission on Military History (HCMH) and the respective Romanian Commission, as well as the Romanian Institute for Political Studies of Defence and Military History set out to collaborate on the study of military history issues. The first successful attempt of cooperation was a special Romanian-Hellenic issue on the “Review of Military History”, in the year 2001. Last year, continuing on our fruitful cooperation, we reached the decision for a new joint publication. The Black Sea, an important area for both Romania and Greece, was selected as the general topic around which the articles were going to develop. The Black Sea, or Euxinus Pontus is an area of vital importance for SE Europe and the surrounding countries. It is connected to the Mediterranean Sea by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles straits and the Aegean Sea. For the Greeks, the Black Sea is a well-known region since antiquity. It constituted the centre of gravity for the ancient Greek mythology and the centerpiece of the Greek colonization and the maritime commerce. Constantine the Great in the year 330 AD chose Nova Roma, or Constantinople as the new capital for his Empire, at a point dominating the entrance to the Euxinus Pontus.The wars of Russia against the Ottoman Empire, in the framework of the Eastern Question, had always as their main goal the Russian aim for a way out to the Mediterranean Sea through, or around the Black Sea. The Dardanelles straits that dominate and control the entrance to the Sea of Marmara constituted and continue to be a cause of conflicts and constantly altered agreements amongst the Great Powers, Russia, Turkey and the rest of the Black Sea coastal countries. In the beginning of the XXIst Century, the pipelines through and around the Black Sea lend a new dimension to the economical dispute in the whole area. The scientific historical articles by the distinguished Romanian and Greek researchers, who cooperated and worked on this joint edition, make a multilateral analysis of the role that the Black Sea played on the relations of our countries. I believe that this form of cooperation contributes to a better understanding and ameliorates our relationship. For this reason, I would like to express my appreciation to all of them. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to the Director of the Romanian Institute for Political Studies of Defence and Military History, as well as to the President of the Romanian Commission on Military History for their interest and concern, so that today we are able to have our second joint edition. 2 P Review of Military History P PREFACE Major General (Ret) Dr. MIHAIL E. IONESCU Director of the Institute for Political Studies of Defense and Military History The Hellenic and the Romanian Commissions of Military History, together with the Institute for Political Studies of Defense and Military History, after seven years, are dedicating a new issue of the “Review of Military History” to the history of political-military relations between our countries, with a Pontic connotation this time. A people of navigators and merchants, the old Greeks „discovered” the Black Sea by the expedition of Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece (XIIIth Century B.C.), annexed it to the written history, firstly through Homer and Hesiodus, than in much circumstantiate manner, together with the entire basin of the Danube, thanks to the work of Herodotus. But, by the Hellenic influence to the development of the autochthonous civilization, the historical relations between old Greeks and the Carpathian- Danubian-Pontic regions and their inhabitants, the Geto-Dacians, date back from more than three millennia. Although the Black Sea is a part of the Eastern Mediterranean basin, being considered as its prolongation, the possession of the Straits is the key for the geopolitical understanding of the history of Pontus, of the political relations between the inhabitants of its shores and Greece. The possession of the Straits is essential not only for the developement in the Aegean, but also for the Black Sea. The Greek possession of Dardanelles and Bosphorus in the ancient world explained the Greek colonization on the Pontic shores, afterward being challenged by the Persians. On the eve of the Christian era the Roman expansion in the Pontic basin, the development of the Roman Empire and the transformation of the Black Sea into a “Roman lake” were possible by the strong control over the Straits. Their exceptional geopolitical significance is proved by the translation to Constantinople of the capital of the Roman Empire and its survival, the Byzantine Empire. By the function of the Black Sea as a “Byzantine lake” and of an “Imperial Danube” until the IVth Crusade (1204), were possible the spreading of the mediaeval Greek civilization and the implementation of political forms, essential for the incipient organization of Romanian statehood. During the „Turkokrateia” and the locking