SOĞUK SAVAŞ SONRASI ORTA ASYA VE KAFKASYA EKSENİNDE TÜRKİYE-NATO-RUSYA İLİŞKİLERİ VE TÜRK DIŞ POLİTİKASI’NA YANSIMALARI

After the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the international system transformed from a bipolar system into an unipolar system. Relationship patterns at the regional and global level changed. Many countries including five Turkish Republics gained independence in the Central Asia and Caucasus. The region became the focus of interest of regional and global actors after rich hydrocarbon reserves were discovered in the region. Regional and global actors competed to consolidate their control on the critical energy infrastructure in the region. Since the success of NATO at providing security and stability in Afghanistan after September 11 gained critical importance with regards to the fight with terrorism and the future of the Alliance, the region’s geostrategic importance increased further. In this article, Turkey’s foreign policy in the region was evaluated within context of her relations with the NATO and Russia. The end of the Cold War changed the role and the function of the NATO in the international system. Many prominent scholars argued that NATO lost its “raison d’etre”. Nonetheless, the Alliance transformed itself from a collective defence organization into a collective security organization according to new threats. NATO identified international terrorism, proliferation of nuclear weapons and drugs and human trafficking as the new threat elements and increased her collaboration with many countries in the Caucasus and the Central Asia via programs such as Partnership for Peace (PFP). In this article, the transformation of NATO, the Alliance’s perspective about the Central Asia and the Caucasus and the collaborations she made with the region countries were investigated. Turkey’s relations with the NATO after the Cold War and the cooperation she made with the Alliance in areas such as international terrorism and energy security were examined. Energy security became a priority for many countries and for international organizations such as NATO and EU especially in the 2000s. Energy security is also a strategic factor in the political and economic dynamics of the Central Asia and the Caucasus. Some of the region countries are energy producers while others are energy consumers and transit countries in a complimentary way. Azerbaijan,Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are energy producers while Georgia and Turkey are transit countries. Russia is a major player in the region dynamics since she controls most of the critical energy infrastructure in the region. The energy rich Caucasus and the Central Asian countries depend at a great extent on Russia to export their oil and natural gas reserves. The US and the EU prefers the transportation of the hydrocarbon reserves of the region over the routes bypassing the Russian territories to lower the EU’s dependence on Russia. Baku-Tiflis-Ceyhan oil pipeline that connects the Caspian Region to the Europe via Georgia and Turkey has a historical significance since it is the first pipeline that bypassed Russia and broken down Russia’s monopoly at the transportation dimension. The Nabucco Pipeline, which is planned to carry natural gas of the Caucasus, the Central Asia and the Middle East to the EU via Turkey, is supported by the western countries since it would lower energy dependence on Russia. Russia, as a counter-step, developed the South Stream Project, which would carry the Russian, the Caspian Region and the Central Asian natural gas via Russia and the Black Sea to the EU bypassing Turkey and in this way would sustain Russia’s control on the energy infrastructure. The clashes between the Russian Federation and Georgia in the summer 2008 showed the fragility of stability in the Caucasus and changed the geopolitical landscape fundamentally. The clashes between the two countries had reflections and implications beyond the region at the global level. It is argued that the developments are indications of return to Realpolitik in the region and even at the global level after the end of the Cold War. Russia’s military operations stunned the western world and reminded Russia’s military and political weight particularly in the region. These developments and the regional policies of Turkey, NATO, the US, the EU, Russia and China were analyzed in the article. It was anticipated that Turkey will continue to support the political, military and economic development of the region countries, cooperate with the NATO in international terrorism and energy security dimensions, and will try to improve her relations with Russia.