Eurasianism and eurasian integration in the political ideologies and practice of Turkey

Abstract

Abstract: The papers analyses transformations of Turkish Eurasianism as a geopolitical concept and attitudes of Turkish political elite towards ideas of Eurasian integration in the 1990s and fi rst decade of the 2000s in comparative perspective. For both Russia and Turkey the geographical dimensions of Eurasia and Eurasianism itself has never been a core characteristic of this concept. In the Turkish socio-political thought Eurasianism combined features of different ideologies (Pan-Turkism, Pan-Islamism, Turkism and Neo-Ottomanism), which offer diverse strategies for Turkey’s regional leadership. Within this polyphony of interpretations and approaches towards Eurasianism in Turkey two theoretical trends became the most prevailing: the fi rst one is a concept of Eurasia as a geographical meta-region, the second one comprises various Turkish versions of Eurasian / Neo-Eurasian ideologies. Turkish politicians and ideologists began to use geographical concept of Eurasia in different confi gurations (like Afro-Eurasia) mostly to defi ne the special “central” role of Turkey in the vast region of modern Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Thus the concept of Eurasia became a universal instrument for both politicians and public intellectuals trying to prove the exceptional geopolitical signifi cance of Turkey for the global world-system.