The Evolution of 'Eurasia' as a Geopolitical Concept in Post-Cold War Turkey

Abstract

This article aims to discuss and analyse the major factors behind the emergence and evolution of Eurasia as a geopolitical concept in Turkey in the postCold War period. For this purpose, special focus will be placed on Turkish political, academic and intellectual circles' redefinition of their geopolitical outlook towards Russia and the Turkic republics of Central Asia and Caucasus in the 1990s and 2000s. The major argument of the article in this regard is that while discourses such as Pan-Turkism, Eurasianism and Neo-Ottomanism have exercised a degree of influence over the conceptualisation of Eurasia in Turkish academic and intellectual circles, the concept has been generally treated as an instrument of pragmatism by Turkish policymakers. This pragmatism is not only reflected in their geo-economic calculations in the field of energy pipelines, but also the reasoning behind the striking improvement of political and economic relations between Turkey and Russia in the 2000s.