JEOPOLİTİK STRATEJİ

Although later definitions came to include a much wider area, Mackinder’s original concept of “pivot” primarily included the Caucasus and Central Asia. A revised version postulated that whoever controls the “Heartland”, controls the “world island”, and whoever controls the World Island, will soon rule the world. This version included the Black Sea rim and Baltic Sea Basin and parts of modern day Russia in addition to the Caucasus and Central Asia in the definition of Heartland.

Eurasia is a vast region, stretching from eastern Europe in the West to the Wall of China in the East. Its western parts has had a specific role in the development of geopolitical analysis. What Alfred Mackinder called struggle to control over the “pivot” in 1904 in a paper submitted to Royal Geographical Society, later came to dominate the geopolitical understanding of the great powers of the time and much later the superpowers of the Cold War era. Simply put, according to Mackinder, whoever controls the Eastern Europe controls the Heartland, moving ahead in the quest to achieve world dominance.

Although later definitions came to include a much wider area, Mackinder’s original concept of “pivot” primarily included the Caucasus and Central Asia. A revised version postulated that whoever controls the “Heartland”, controls the “world island”, and whoever controls the World Island, will soon rule the world. This version included the Black Sea rim and Baltic Sea Basin and parts of modern day Russia in addition to the Caucasus and Central Asia in the definition of Heartland.

Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC) Established in June 1992, BSEC officially became a ‘regional economic organization’ with an international legal identity in May 1, 1999 upon entry into force of its Charter, signed in June 1998.

From a contemporary geopolitical perspective, the Caucasus is the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and comprised of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, though the parts of Russia, Turkey and Iran could be included from a geographic standpoint.

Black Sea region has in the past played a major role in shaping history of the regions around it. For centuries, the diversity of people living in the region has been both a source of conflict and of cultural enrichment. Since Antiquity, when Jason and Argonauts went to its shores to search for Golden Fleece, it attracted wider European attention. It had been, from Antiquity to the end of the 20th century, a backyard of one power or the other; otherwise witnessed their competition to dominate it. It saw the dominance of the Byzantine, Ottoman, and finally Russian Empires that successfully closed it to the outside world for a number of years. During the most of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Black Sea saw a struggle for supremacy over the sea between the Ottoman Empire and Czarist Russia. In fact, the control over the Turkish Straits, which links the Black Sea to the open seas, was one of the most influential determining factors shaping the alliances in world politics. Supremacy over the Black Sea was the main reason behind the Crimean War of 1856 and struggle to control the Straits created one of the most memorable battles of the First World War. Similar situation existed during the Second World War and after that during the Cold War. Russian maneuvering to gain control over the Straits, or at least to share their responsibility, during the Second World War had induced Turkey to seek membership in the NATO, thus bringing the latter to the region.

As a result of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in December 1991, eight diverse republics emerged in Central Asia and the Caucasus, in addition to two more in the Black Sea region apart from Russian Federation, facing similar problems. While national minorities rediscovered long suppressed identities and demanded new rights throughout the region, political leaders in all the countries plunged into what could best be described as a prolonged period of nation and state building process. While the Caucasian countries had experiences of statehood before finally subjugated to the Russian/Soviet rule in the early 20th century and Moldova had a very brief independence in 1918, Central Asian countries as well as Ukraine had never in history experienced with a modern state system and did not exist in the forms that they gained their independence at the end of the 20th century. Most of the borders emerged after their independence did not have much meaning for the nomadic people of the pre-Russian Eurasia. As people of these regions started to realize their ethnic, religious, and historical roots, the emerging diversity created domestic and regional rivalries as well as international influences and pressures

The North and South Caucasus have especially complicated ethnic mixtures. Even though each of the newly independent Caucasian states has its own dominant titular nation, each state also has a significant number of minorities. Moreover, while the majority in Central Asia is Sunni Moslem, the South Caucasus also has a complex diversification in terms of religious faiths that are closely related to separate nationalethnic identities. The Azerbaijanis belong to the Turkic race and the majority of them are Shi’ite Moslems. However, a majority of Armenians and Georgians are believers of two branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church. There are Armenians living in Azerbaijan and Georgia. The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region is located within the borders of Azerbaijan while 76,4 percent of its indigenous population is Armenians. In contrast, Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, which is part of Azerbaijan but located between Armenia and Iran, is formed mostly of Azerbaijanis.

Dutch Disease: It is a term coined by the Economist in 1977 to describe the problems of the Dutch economy related to its one-product economy. In 1960s, after the large oil reserves are discovered in the North Sea, the Dutch oil exports increased on a vast scale. Despite the positive development, there were serious consequences on important segments of the Dutch economy as the Dutch guilder (former currency of the Netherlands) became stronger. Non-oil exports became more expensive and therefore less competitive. Moreover, between 1970 and 1977, the unemployment rates increased from 1,1% to 5,1%. Since the oil and gas extraction are capital-intense businesses, they generate few jobs. This situation occurred in many countries across the world. The Dutch disease is generally linked to a natural resource discovery but it can be related to the any sector in which there is an unexpected high increase that causes a decline in other sectors.

The term “frozen conflict” indicates to a condition in which active fighting has ended or subsided but there is no peace agreement beyond a tenuous cease-fire. It was politically first used to refer to the conflicts that emerged in the Caucasus during the early 1990s, and continued without a solution since then, but there is no active fighting anymore along the ceasefire lines. Since then the terminology expanded to include Trnasnistrea conflict in Moldova as well.

Despite the fact that the official hostility between Russia and the Chechens ceased in August 1996, the instability and volatility of the situation continued in the North Caucasus for some time because of political kidnappings and hostage taking, as well as the non-implementation of agreements. One of the most important consequences of the Chechen conflict was the gradual failure of law and order in Dagestan, which was significant for Russia as it was clear that the complete control of the North Caucasus by the Russian authorities could provide the continuation of Russian influence in the South Caucasus.

The former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan are the Central Asian countries. The answer is A.

Starting from the 17th century, Russia began to encroach upon Central Asia. The answer is B.

The Dutch Disease is a term coined by the Economist in 1977 to describe the problems of the Dutch economy related to its one-product economy

Dual Containment Policy refers to an official U.S. policy during the 1980s and 1990s that aimed at surrounding Iran and Iraq, the two most strategic adversaries of the U.S. and Israel in the Middle East. The answer is C.

Frozen conflict means a condition in which active fighting has ended or subsided but there is no peace agreement beyond a tenuous cease-fire.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group was established in 1992 by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, now OSCE) to encourage a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno- Karabakh. The answer is A.

Near Abroad Policy was the policy developed by Russia to watch over the situation of the ethnic Russians living in the newly independent states in the 1990s. The answer is A.

Turkey spearheaded the only inclusive multilateral cooperation program in Eurasia, i.e. the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, which brought together various countries in the western part of Eurasia. The answer is D.

Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2012. The answer is A.

Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea on August 12, 2018.