Contemporary Turkish – Russian Relations from Past to Future
The Turkish-Russian “Coalition of Interests”, in Syria: an Analysis in The Framework of Neo Realist Theory
Alperen Kürşad ZenginTurkish and Russian (Soviet Union) relations before the Cold War, were moderate in certain proportions. During the Cold War bilateral relations were at a low level due to reasons such as Turkey taking sides with the Western bloc against the threat of communism and becoming a member of NATO, and because of the Soviet Union’s territorial claims against Turkey. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, bilateral relations remained in a competitive dimension and improvements were observed in some areas towards the end of the 1990s. In the early 2000s a change in power in both countries, and the abandonment of the negative legacies of the Cold War had a positive impact on the development of bilateral relations. During this period, various partnerships were established in areas such as politics, economics and energy. The fact that the two countries have different perspectives on the situation brought about by the Syrian crisis has caused the deterioration of the strategic relations established in the early 2000s. Subsequently, both countries have approached each other in the context of their national interests. In this study, it is argued that the process of rapprochement in developing bilateral relations on the subject of Russia’s and Turkey’s intervention in the Syrian crisis should be evaluated within the framework policies of the neorealist theory “balancing through alliances” and “attack-defence balance”.