THE INFLUENCE OF DOMESTIC FACTORS ON MILITARY-POLITICAL BEHAVIOR OF TURKEY IN THE FIRST AND 44-DAY ARTSAKH WARS: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Through a comparative analysis of the first Karabakh war, the article aims at revealing the influence of the Turkish domestic factors and their transformations on the immediate and apparent involvement of Turkey in the 44-day Karabakh war. Though Turkey’s foreign policy in general and its involvement in the war in question is often accounted for basically taking into account the international system and geopolitical processes, the influence and significance of the domestic, unit-level factors is of no less importance, because the foreign and security policy of a state depends on the unit-level variables. Therefore, as a research problem, the domestic catalysts of Turkey’s apparent military involvement are viewed in the context of the neutralization of the state mechanisms of checks and balances, monopolization of decision-making, military might and experience through a comparative analysis method. The article argues that the transformation of the stated domestic factors had a vital importance in Turkey’s immediate involvement in the last Karabakh war and in adopting a line of an aggressive foreign and regional security policy in general.