TURKEY’S GEOSTRATEGIC INTERESTS IN THE CAUCASUS

Ziia KENGERLI

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Ziia Kengerly, Employee at the Department of International Relations and Law, Baku State University (Baku, Azerbaijan)

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The disintegration of the U.S.S.R. brought about radical changes in Turkey’s foreign policy environment. First of all, there is no longer a direct threat from its northern and northwestern neighbors. Whereby, instead of one neighbor, the Soviet Union, it has gained six new ones: Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. On the whole though, because of the rather complicated relations with its other regional neighbors, Greece, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, Turkey still faces demanding foreign policy challenges, which are having more of an impact on where Ankara places the emphasis in its foreign policy than on its new orientation choices.

As NATO’s southeast wing, Turkey has become an independent regional nation with growing influence in the Near and Middle East, as well as among the Turkic-speaking peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia. What is more, the regional military balance in the Black Sea and the Central Caucasus has shifted in its favor. And its geographical location has predetermined its role as a mediator between Europe and the Near and Middle East. In so doing, its ethnic and linguistic kinship with the Turkic nations of the Caucasus and Central Asia has helped Turkey to gain faster access to the local markets. At the same time, it is becoming a gateway for the export of Caspian oil to Europe. But as things stand today, Ankara has to take Moscow’s interests into account in this area, which requires it to act cautiously and avoid confrontation with it.

Nevertheless, involvement in the affairs of these two regions is vitally important for the Turkish economy, since they have……………..

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