Eurasianism

Following Vladimir Putin’s election as the new president of the Russian Federation in 2000, relations between Turkey and Russia have continuously improved not only in terms of cooperation in technical areas such as trade and energy, but also regarding their dialogue in major regional and global political issues. The rapprochement between the two countries has been so remarkable that some even started to view it as the formation of a new strategic axis in Eurasia. Although the term ‘strategic’ may be a little too ambitious for defining the relations between Turkey and Russia, it is still possible to argue that the positive course of their bilateral relations throughout the 2000s replaced the old notion which viewed the two countries as geopolitical rivals in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The goal of this article is to reveal and analyze the major factors behind the emergence of this so-called ‘multidimensional partnership’ in Turkish-Russian relations in the 2000s.

Can Putin really be considered a neo-Eurasianist? Is his policy of ‘multipolarism’ a direct consequence of his neo-Eurasianist inclinations? If so, why did he try to construct closer relations with the US in the post-September 11 period? Is this a real pro-Atlanticism or did Putin’s pro-Atlanticism simply result from the pragmatist tendencies in his foreign policy? Could it be that he had suspicions - from the very beginning of his tenure - about the chances of Russia in following a more neo-Eurasianist foreign policy? These are some of the questions this study will try to concentrate on. Only by finding responses to these questions, one can make judgements about Putin’s neo-Eurasianist inclinations in his foreign policy. However, in order to find such responses, one should also try to take a closer look at neo-Eurasianism’s views about Russian foreign policy. Thus, first of all it is necessary to note down some key elements of the neo-Eurasianist paradigm regarding Russia’s position in the new context of international relations, and to consider the views of two significant figures, Aleksandr Dugin as a theorist and Yevgenii Primakov as a practitioner, about the Russian foreign policy in order to evaluate Putin’s relationship with neo-Eurasianism in his foreign policy.

"SSCB’nin dağılmasının ardından, “Homo Sovieticus” tanımlayıcı bir kimlik olma özelliğini yitirdi ve yerine aynı değerde yeni bir kimlik konulamadı. Rusya Federasyonu’nda kimlik sorunu, 1990’larda dinsel, kültürel, kavim vb. gibi kimlikler yanında ulusal kimliklerin yeniden gün yüzüne çıkmasıyla farklı bir nitelik kazanmaya basladı. Kimileri demokratik yollarla kimliklerini kazanmaya çalısırken Rusya Federasyonu da ülkede bütünlüğü sağlamak amacıyla bünyesindeki tüm halkları birlestirici bir ulusal ülkü yaratmaya çalıstı. 1990’ların sonunda Rus siyasetçilerini mesgul eden en önemli konulardan biri bu yeni bir kimlik arayısı oldu. Rusya’da ulusal kimlik arayısı bugüne kadar farklı nitelikler kazanarak sürmektedir.
Bu incelemede, Boris Yeltsin ile birlikte baslayan ve Rusya Federasyonu’nda bir hükümet politikası hâline gelen, iktidar ve devlet eliyle gerçeklestirilen ulusal ülkü ve kimlik arayısları konu edilmektedir."