Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:19:06.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Turkey and Eurasia: Frontiers of a new geographic imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Bülent Aras
Affiliation:
Department of International Relations, Işık University, Kumbaba Mevkii, 34980, Şile, İstanbul, abulent@isikun.edu.tr
Hakan Fidan
Affiliation:
Deputy Undersecretary of the Prime Ministry of Turkey, hakanfidan@bilkent.edu.tr

Abstract

Turkey has adopted a new course in foreign policy toward Eurasia. This article employs the notion of geographic imagination to analyze how Turkish policy-makers have developed a new political rhetoric and foreign policy towards the Eurasian region, specifically Central Asia, the Caucasus and Russia. Turkish policy-makers aim to further Turkey's interests ranging from security, over regional trade, to energy issues in this geography, in addition to creating an environment of cooperation and eliminating regional power constellations. We conclude that Turkey's renewed activism has opened new horizons for its relations in this region and that this new foreign policy orientation is linked to reform and change in Turkey's domestic landscape.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2007 TİKA Faaliyet Raporu. Ankara: TİKA Yayınları, 2008.Google Scholar
2007 Türkiye Kalkınma Yardımları Raporu. Ankara: TİKA Yayınları, 2008.Google Scholar
2008'de Türkiye-Gürcistan İlişkileri.” Hürriyet, 19 December 2009.Google Scholar
Agnew, John A.Geopolitics: revisioning world politics. London: Routledge, 1998.Google Scholar
Akgün, Mensur. “Rusya'nın Önemi.Referans, 1 September 2008.Google Scholar
“AP'deki Ermeni Konferansı.” (2008), http://www.abhaber.com/ozelhaber.php?id=1940.Google Scholar
Aras, Bülent. “Turkey's Policy in the Former Soviet South: Assets and Options.Turkish Studies 1, no. S1 (2000): 3658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atlı, Altay. “Turkey and Georgia: Opening the Roads for Trade.Eurasianet, 8 February 2006.Google Scholar
Babacan Azeri ve Ermeni Bakanlarla Helsinki'deydi.Taraf, 5 December 2008.Google Scholar
Bal, İdris. ““Turkish Model” and the Turkic Republics.Perceptions 3, no. 3 (September-November 1998): 105–29.Google Scholar
Başlamış, Cenk. “Rus Doğal Gazına Erteleme.Milliyet, 6 November 1999.Google Scholar
Berkan, İsmet. “Kişisel Bir Şey.Radikal, 19 December 2008.Google Scholar
Bila, Fikret. “Erdoğan: Rusya'yı Gözardi Edemeyiz.Milliyet, 2 September 2008.Google Scholar
Çandar, Cengiz. “Genelkurmay, Sivil Bireyler ve Ermeni Tabusu...Radikal, 20 December 2008.Google Scholar
Dalby, Simon, and Ó. Tuathail, Gearóid. “The Critical Geopolitics Constellation: Problematizing Fusions of Geographical Knowledge and Power.Political Geography 15, no. 6-7 (1998): 451–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davutoğlu, Ahmet. “Turkey's New Foreign Policy Vision.Insight Turkey 10, no. S1 (2008): 7796.Google Scholar
Davutoğlu'ndan Ermenistan'a Net Mesajlar.Star, 29 September 2008.Google Scholar
Erdoğan, Recep Tayyip. “Speech to 38th Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank, 5 May 2005.” http://www.adb.org/annualmeeting/2005/Speeches/prime-minister-speech.html.Google Scholar
Fidan, Hakan, and Nurdun, Rahman. “Turkey's Role in the Global Development Assistance Community: the Case of TİKA (Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency). “Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans 10, no. S1 (2008): 93111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Georgia Crisis.International Debates 6, no. 6 (2008): 125.Google Scholar
Georgia: Hopeful President Pays First Official Visit to Turkey.RFE/RL Report, 20 May 2004.Google Scholar
Gül'le Sarkisyan ‘Kafkaslar'ı Görüştü.Dünya, 7 September 2008.Google Scholar
İdiz, Semih. “Azerbaycan da Geniş Açıdan Bakabilmeli.Milliyet, 8 September 2008.Google Scholar
İşeri, Emre. “Geopolitics of Oil and Pipelines in the Eurasian Heartland.” In The Polities of Oil edited by Gökay, Bülent. London: Routledge, 2006.Google Scholar
Kafkasya İstikrar ve İşbirliği Platformu'na Destek Var.Sabah, 19 August 2008.Google Scholar
Kafkasya İşbirliğine Aliyev Desteği.Radikal, 20 August 2008.Google Scholar
Kalın, İbrahim. “From History to Realpolitik in Armenian-Turkish Relations.Today's Zaman, 11 September 2008.Google Scholar
Kampanya Açık Toplumun Göstergesi.Taraf, 18 December 2008.Google Scholar
Karagiannis, Manos. “The Turkish-Georgian Relationship and the Transportation of Azerbaijani Oil.Caspian Crossroads Magazine 4, no. S1 (1998).Google Scholar
Kardaş, Şaban. “Armenian Foreign Minister Visits Turkey, Reaffirms Determination for Dialogue.Eurasia Daily Monitor 5, no. 228 (2008).Google Scholar
Kars-Tiflis-Bakü Demiryolu Projesi ve Beklentiler.Hürriyet, 21 September 2007.Google Scholar
Kirişçi, Kemal. “The End of the Cold War and Changes in Turkish Foreign Policy Behavior.Foreign Policy 17, no. 3-4 (1993).Google Scholar
Kirişçi, Kemal. “Turkey's Foreign Policy in Turbulent Times.” In Chaillot Paper 92. Paris: EU-ISS, 2006.Google Scholar
Nikoghosyan, Hovhannes. “Fair Dialogue, the Best Way Forward.Turkish Daily News, 26 August 2008.Google Scholar
Ogan, Sinan. “Rusya ile Gümrük Krizinin Gerçek Sebebi ve Alınacak Ünlemler.Turkishforum, 2 September 2008.Google Scholar
Papazian, Taline. “From Ter-Petrossian to Kocharian: Explaining Continuity in Armenian Foreign Policy, 1991-2003.Demokrotizotsiyo 14, no. 2 (2006).Google Scholar
Russia Denies Punishing Turkey over Georgia.The International Herald Tribune, 2 September 2008.Google Scholar
Rusya Ülke Bülteni, İstanbul: DEİK, 2008.Google Scholar
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. London: Chatto and Windus, 1993.Google Scholar
Saribrahimoğlu, Lale. “Turkey, Russia Begin to Overcome Military Distrust.Today's Zaman, 15 April 2008.Google Scholar
Scaliger, Charles. “Fanning the Flames in Georgia.New American, 13 October 2008, 2123.Google Scholar
Selçuk, Hasan. Türkiye-Rusya Ekonomik İlişkileri, İstanbul: TASAM, 2005.Google Scholar
Taşpınar, Ömer, and Hill, Fiona. “Turkey and Russia: Axis of the Excluded?Survival 48, no. S1 (2006): 8192.Google Scholar
Tsygankov, Andrei P.Finding a Civilizational Idea: ‘West,’ ‘Eurasia,’ and ‘Euro-East’ in Russia's Foreign Policy.Geopolitics 12, no. 3 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuathail, Gearóid Ó. “Geopolitical Structures and Geopolitical Cultures: Towards Conceptual Clarity in the Critical Study of Geopolitics.” In Geopolitics: Global Problems and Regional Concerns, Bison paper 4, edited by Tchantouridze, L., 75102. Winnipeg: Centre for Defense and Security Studies, 2003.Google Scholar
Tuathail, Gearóid Ó. Rethinking Geopolitics. London: Routledge, 1998.Google Scholar
Tuathail, Ó. Gearóid. Critical Geopolitics. Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 1996.Google Scholar
Turkey-Russia Relations.EurActiv, 9 November 2006.Google Scholar
Turkey Spearheads Creation of Caucasian Union.Global Insight, 18 August 2008.Google Scholar
The World of Business Now Spearheads Foreign Policy: An Interview with Ahmet Davutoğlu.Turkish-Time, 15 April-15 May 2004.Google Scholar