Contemporary Russo Turkish Relations

This book examines events around the crisis between Russia and Turkey (2015–2016), offering insights into this conflict and its resolution.

The historical experience of relations between Turkey and Russia has gone through different stages. The first attempts at diplomatic relations, which date back to the 15th century, have developed over time and have begun to determine the geopolitical balance of power in the region. At the same time, certain regions have gained importance in the context of Russia and Turkey relations (a context in which strategic interests have been an area of constant search for compromise solutions): Central Asia, the Balkan Peninsula, the Caucasus region and the Middle East. Along with this, the historical roots of Turkey lie in the Eurasian region among the Turkic peoples of Russia, and the confessional values of Orthodox culture originated in the Byzantine Empire. From this point of view, Russian-Turkish relations can be seen as are an intertwinement of a large number of sensitive issues and difficult compromise solutions. The regional mutual influence of Russia and Turkey seems to be a long process that developed during the period of the Ottoman and Russian Empires. At the stage of the formation of the Moscow state, Ivan the Third understood the importance of the participation of Russian merchants in the markets of Istanbul and sent a letter to the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid the Second on August 31, 1492, asking for free movement and trade. Having received a positive answer, Ivan the Third decided to send his ambassador to the Ottoman court in 1495, and thus diplomatic relations between İstanbul and Moscow began. Subsequently, the strengthening of the Russian Empire and its active participation in European politics led to a direct clash between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. Until the conflict of interest during the first World War, Russia and Turkey experienced the difficulties of a large multinational poly-confessional state in different ways, overflowing with ideas of constitutional reforms and democratic transformations. Following the end of First World War, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the change of state formation, i.e. the republic, once again pushed Soviet government and Turkey into a dialogue and consolidation efforts in the region: the Turkish War of Independence under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the straits questions, diplomatic friction with the West at the Lausanne Conference and the support of diplomats from Ankara by the Soviet delegation. The 20th century largely predetermined the foreign policy orientation of the Republic of Turkey. In 1952, Turkey and Greece became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization at the NATO Summit in Lisbon. As a result of the confrontation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, Turkey and Russia been forced to build relations through the prism of the foreign policy agendas for a long time. The end of the 20th century and especially the beginning of the 21st century brought Russia to the level of the state and it began to build its foreign policy strategy based on national interest. As a result of V. V. Putin's speech at the Munich conference on February 10, 2007, he set the task of creating a "multipolar world" as an objective. At the same time, Turkey continued to be an active participant in European politics, counting on fully-fledged integration into the European Union, but did not receive a specific answer and was forced to postpone the decision. In this regard, Turkey at a certain point made an independent decision to refuse to participate in the process of European integration and to develop its independent foreign policy strategy in the region. The catalyst for this decision was an unsuccessful coup attempt on July 15, 2016. Regional and global challenges caused by the Syrian crisis and confrontation of the international coalition in the Middle East have posed new challenges to Russian-Turkish relations. The attempts to consolidate the opinions and visions of specialists in various spheres of relations between Russia and Turkey relations have led the authors to highlight these aspects in regional interactions of various countries.

This book addresses the treaties, crises and other issues that seem to be turning points in Russian-Turkish relations, reflecting on Russian and Turkish archival documents and resources. Over six chapters, it analyses Russian-Turkish relations from the First World War up to the present time, presenting information on issues that include the causes of the First World War and Turkey’s entrance into the War, internal power struggles, establishment of I.V. Stalin’s rule, Turkey-Soviet relations from 1960 to 1980, and also Glasnost and Perestroika and Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin’s rise to power.

Relations between Turkey and Russia are in the process of development and still short of their potential in many areas, such as economic cooperation. This edited collection covers the most important areas of cooperation, both historical and contemporary, and discusses opportunities for the future cooperation.

The study of politics in Turkey : new horizons and perennial pitfalls / Güneş Murat Tezcür -- Democratization theories and Turkey / Ekrem Karakoç -- Ruling ideologies in modern Turkey / Kerem Öktem -- Constitutionalism in Turkey / Aslı Ü. Bâli -- Civil-military relations and the demise of Turkish democracy / Nil S. Satana and Burak Bilgehan Özpek -- Capturing secularism in Turkey : the ease of comparison / Murat Akan -- The political economy of Turkey since the end of World War II / Şevket Pamuk -- Neoliberal politics in Turkey / Sinan Erensü and Yahya M. Madra -- The politics of welfare in Turkey / Erdem Yörük -- The political economy of environmental policymaking in Turkey : a vicious cycle / Fikret Adaman, Bengi Akbulut, and Murat Arsel -- The politics of energy in Turkey : running engines on geopolitical, discursive, and coercive power / Begüm Özkaynak, Ethemcan Turhan, and Cem İskender Aydın -- The contemporary politics of health in Turkey : diverse actors, competing frames, and uneven policies / Volkan Yılmaz -- Populism in Turkey : historical and contemporary patterns / Yüksel Taşkın -- Old and new polarizations and failed democratizations in Turkey / Murat Somer -- Economic voting during the AKP era in Turkey / S. Erdem Aytaç -- Party organizations in Turkey and their consequences for democracy / Melis G. Laebens -- The evolution of conventional political participation in Turkey / Ersin Kalaycıoğlu -- Symbolic politics and contention in the Turkish Republic / Senem Aslan -- Islamist activism in Turkey / Menderes Çınar -- The Kurdish movement in Turkey : understanding everyday perceptions and experiences / Dilan Okcuoglu -- The Transnational Mobilization of the Alevis of Turkey : from invisibility to the struggle for equality / Ceren Lord -- Politics of asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey : limits and prospects of populism / Fatih Resul Kılınç and Şule Toktaş -- A theoretical account of Turkish foreign policy under the AKP / Tarık Oğuzlu -- US-Turkey relations since WWII : from alliance to transactionalism / Serhat Güvenç and Soli Özel -- Turkey and Europe : historical asynchronicities and perceptual asymmetries / Hakan Yılmaz -- Turkey's foreign policy in the Middle East : an identity perspective / Lisel Hintz -- Turkey and Russia : historical patterns and contemporary trends in bilateral relations / Evren Balta and Mitat Çelikpala -- Citizenship and protest behavior in Turkey / Ayhan Kaya -- Gender politics and the struggle for equality in Turkey / Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat -- Human rights organizations in Turkey / Başak Çalı -- Truth, justice, and commemoration initiatives in Turkey / Onur Bakiner -- The politics of media in Turkey : chronicle of a stillborn media system / Sarphan Uzunoğlu -- The AKP's rhetoric of rule in Turkey : political melodramas of conspiracy from "ergenekon" to "mastermind" / Erdağ Göknar -- The transformation of political cinema in Turkey since the 1960s : a change of discourse / Zeynep Çetin-Erus and M. Elif Demoğlu -- Political music in Turkey : the birth and diversification of dissident and conformist music (1920-2000) / Mustafa Avcı.

Explains the trajectory of Turkish foreign policy behavior vis-...-vis the West, identifying the major factors behind intra-alliance opposition.

Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Utah in 2010.