From 24 to 26 October 2024, an international academic conference entitled “250 Years of Geopolitics and Geostrategy in the Eastern Question. The Peace of Küçük Kaynarca and the Balance of Power in Europe during the Long Eighteenth Century” was held in the Conference Hall of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. The event brought together historians, Balkan studies scholars, and experts from related disciplines.
The conference was jointly organised by the University Center for Regional Studies and Analyses (UCRSA), the Department of Byzantine and Balkan History at the Faculty of History, and the Society for 18th Century Studies on South Eastern Europe (SOG18) at the University of Graz. The initiative to hold such an international scholarly forum in Sofia belongs to Prof. Dr. Harald Heppner, who in 2014 was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.
The opening session of the conference, chaired by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maria Baramova, was dedicated to “The Great Powers and the Eastern Question (1774–1815)”. Prof. Dr. Harald Heppner from the University of Graz, Prof. Ivan Parvev, DSc, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Baramova participated in this panel. They highlighted key developments during the decades of the Eastern Question between 1774 and 1815, placing them within a highly intriguing European and global historical context. On the one hand, the wars for continental supremacy clearly extended to the New World, implying that the European balance of power increasingly incorporated geopolitical dimensions from other continents. This undoubtedly steered major European politics towards the well-known geopolitical dichotomy between a “maritime empire” and a “continental empire.”
The second panel of the conference, moderated by Prof. Harald Heppner, focused on “Economy and Geopolitics in the Balkans (1774–1856)”. Specific research problems within this thematic field were presented by Prof. Dr. Olga Katsiardi-Hering from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Dr. Iveta Koseva, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Krastev, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tina Georgieva, and Dr. Mihail Simov.
The concluding session, devoted to “The Religious Factor in the Eastern Question (1774–1856)”, was chaired by Prof. Ivan Parvev. It featured contributions by Dr. Konrad Petrovsky from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Head Assistant Professor Dr. Vanya Racheva, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Radoslav Spasov, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nadezhda Alexandrova.
The conference generated significant academic interest and lively discussions involving guests, faculty members, and students from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. The participants identified new interdisciplinary connections to be explored in future research and expressed their satisfaction with the timely organisation of this scholarly forum.
