BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

Contemporary Trends of Improvements in Turkey-Russia Relations: Ramifications for Regional Geopolitics

Author: Mahbubur Rashid Bhuiyan

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2022v43n1a4

ABSTRACT

Progress in Turco-Russian relations in recent times have generated speculations on Turkey leaving the West and moving closer to Russia for establishing alternative coalition; their opposition to Western policies and positions, mutual support, expanding cooperation in diverse fields, similarities in their own stances, deepen such apprehensions. A longstanding ally of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Turkey has lots of grievances with its Western partners, i.e., the European Union (EU) and the United States (US), like, over its failure to secure EU membership due to members' opposition, purchase of Russian weaponry, Armenian Genocide recognition, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, European refugee crisis, etc. Conversely, there are reasons, e.g., economic factors, the West and Russia's common displeasure on its role in Syria, Libya, hardline religious stances, Turkey- Armenia animus, and other issues. Nevertheless, improvements in Turco-Russian relations are likely to have wide-ranging ramifications for the geopolitics of three regions, considered as spheres of influence/interest, i.e., Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is argued that even though Turkey and Russia's bilateral ties have seen important advancement nowadays, Turkey is unlikely to leave the Western camp for deeper alignment with Russia, owing to long history of hostilities and unstable nature of relations with that country.