Debating Eurasia: Political Travels of a Geographical Concept in Turkey
Yıl: 2019 Cilt: 16 Sayı: 63 Sayfa Aralığı: 33 - 50 Metin Dili: Türkçe İndeks Tarihi: 30-06-2022
Debating Eurasia: Political Travels of a Geographical Concept in Turkey
Öz: This article reviews the ways in which various actors in Turkey have used the terms ‘Eurasia’ and ‘Eurasianism’ since the
end of the Cold War. It presents two arguments. First, compared to Russian Eurasianism, it is difficult to talk about the
existence of a ‘Turkish Eurasianism’. Yet, the article employs the term Turkish Eurasianism as a shorthand to describe
the ways in which Eurasia and Eurasianism are employed in Turkey. Second, Turkish Eurasianism is nothing but the
use or instrumentalization of Eurasia to create a geopolitical identity for Turkey that legitimizes its political, economic,
and strategic interests primarily in the post-Soviet space, but, from time to time, also in the Balkans and Africa. Various
Turkish state and non-state actors have used Eurasia to mean different things and justify different goals: reaching out
to Turkic Republics, being pro-Russian, creating a sphere of influence in former Ottoman lands, or, recently, cloaking
anti-Western currents.
Anahtar Kelime: Belge Türü: Makale Makale Türü: Araştırma Makalesi Erişim Türü: Bibliyografik
- 1 Gearoid O’Tuathail and Simon Dalby, “Introduction: Rethinking Geopolitics: Towards a Critical Geopolitics”, Gearoid O’Tuathail and Simon Dalby (eds.), Rethinking Geopolitics, London, Routledge, 1998, p. 2.
- 2 Göktürk Tüysüzoğlu, “Strategic Depth: A Neo-Ottomanist Interpretation of Turkish Eurasianism”, Mediterranean Quarterly, Vol 25, No 2, 2014, pp. 85-104; Ebru Eren-Webb, “To Which Eurasia Does Turkey Belong? A Comparative Analysis of Turkish Eurasianist Discourses”, Boğaziçi Journal, Vol. 25, No 2, 2011, pp. 59-82.
- 3 Emel Akçalı and Mehmet Perinçek, “Kemalist Eurasianism: An Emerging Geopolitical Discourse in Turkey”, Geopolitics, Vol. 14, No 3, 2009, pp. 550-569.
- 4 Özgür Tüfekçi, “Ahmet Davutoğlu’s Foreign Policy Understanding: A Blend of Westernist and Multiculturalist Eurasianism”, The Arab World Geographer/Le Geographe du Monde Arabe, Vol. 17, No 3, 2014, pp. 275-289.
- 5 Metin Gürcan, “The Rise of the Eurasianist Vision in Turkey”, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/05/ turkey-rise-of-euroasianist-vision.html (Accessed 30 July 2017).
- 6 Vügar İmanov, Avrasyacılık: Rusya’nın Kimlik Arayışı, İstanbul, Küre Yayınları, 2008, pp. 291-378.
- 7 Marlene Laruelle, “Russo-Turkish Rapprochement through the Idea of Eurasia: Alexander Dugin’s Networks in Turkey”, The Jamestown Foundation, Occasional Papers, 2008.
- 8 Marlene Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism: An Ideology of Empire, Washington DC, Woodrow Wilson Press/The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, p. 199.
- 9 Emre Erşen, “The Evolution of ‘Eurasia’ as a Geopolitical Concept in Post-Cold War Turkey”, Geopolitics, Vol. 18, No 1, 2013, pp. 24-44.
- 10 Emre Erşen, “Geopolitical Traditions in Turkey: Turkish Eurasianism”, Mark Bassin et al. (eds.), The Politics of Eurasianism: Identity, Popular Culture and Russia’s Foreign Policy, London, Rowman and Littlefield, 2017, pp. 263-281.
- 11 Mark Bassin et al., “What is Eurasianism and Who Made It?” Mark Bassin et al. (eds.), Between Europe and Asia: The Origins, Theories and Legacies of Russian Eurasianism, Pittsburgh, PA, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015, p. 1.
- 12 Akçalı and Perinçek, “Kemalist Eurasianism”, p. 551; Erşen, “The Evolution of ‘Eurasia’”, p. 25; Erel Tellal, “Türk Dış Politikası’nda Avrasya Seçeneği”, Mustafa Aydın (ed.), Türkiye’nin Avrasya Macerası (1989-2006), Ankara, Nobel Yayınevi, 2007, p. 13.
- 13 “Eurasia” https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/eurasia (Accessed 21 June 2017).
- 14 Martin W. Lewis and Karen E. Wigen, The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1997, p. 129.
- 15 Marlene Laruelle, “The Notion of Euraisa: A Spatial, Historical, and Political Construct”, Edward Holland and Matthew Derrick (eds.), Questioning Post-Soviet, Washington DC, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2016, p. 129; Emre Erşen, “Avrasyacılık ve Uluslararası İlişkiler”, Sevinç Alkan Özcan (ed.), Avrasya Konuşmaları: Medeniyet, Modernite, Kimlik, Istanbul, Küre Yayınları, 2010, p. 33.
- 16 Laruelle, “The Notion of Eurasia”, p. 129; Marlene Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism, p. 3;Vügar İmanov, “Klasik Avrasyacılık: Rus Medeniyet Kimliği İnşası”, Akademik Araştırmalar Dergisi, No 35, 2007-2008, p. 2; Vügar İmanov, “Avrasyacılık: Alternatif Bir Dünya Düzenine Doğru Mu?” Mesut Özcan et. al (eds.), Modernite ve Dünya Düzen(ler)i, pp. 223-225; Muhittin Tolga Özsağlam, “Geçmişten Günümüze Avrasyacılık”, Kıbrıs Yazıları, No 3, 2006, p. 114.
- 17 Mark Bassin et al., “What is Eurasianism and Who Made It?” Mark Bassin et al. (eds.), Between Europe and Asia, p. 4; İmanov, Avrasyacılık, p. 65.
- 18 Mark Bassin, “Classical Eurasianism and the Geopolitics of Russian Identity”, Ab Imperio, No 2, p. 257 and 259; İmanov, “Klasik Avrasyacılık”, p. 4.
- 19 İmanov, “Avrasyacılık: Alternatif Bir Dünya Düzenine Doğru mu?” p. 223.
- 20 İmanov, “Klasik Avrasyacılık”, pp. 4-5; Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism, pp. 25-30.
- 21 Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism, p. 25.
- 22 Mark Bassin, “Russia Between Europe and Asia: The Ideological Construction of Geographical Space”, Slavic Review, Vol. 50, No 1, Spring 1991, p. 14; İmanov, “Klasik Avrasyacılık”, p. 3.
- 23 Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism, p. 32.
- 24 Bassin et al., “What Was Eurasianism and Who Made It ?” p. 8; Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism, p. 38. 25 Ibid., p. 27.
- 26 Bassin et al., “Russia Between Europe and Asia”, p. 8; İmanov, Avrasyacılık, pp. 147-160; Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism, pp. 22-23.
- 27 Gumilev’s correspondence with Petr Savitskii and Vernadskii is the reason why most texts about the history of Eurasianism credit Lev Gumilev as the person linking the classical Eurasianists and the neo-Eurasianists—though with some grain of salt. See for example, Martin Beisswenger, “Was Lev Gumilev a ‘Eurasianist?’: A New Look at His Postwar Contact with Petr Savitskii”, Ab Imperio, No 1 2013, pp. 85-108; İmanov, “Avrasyacılık: Alternatif Bir Dünya Düzenine
- Doğru mu?” p. 229; Laruelle, “The Notion of Eurasia”, p. 130. In Russian Eurasianism: An Ideology of Empire, Laruelle argues that Gumilev “was not “the last Eurasianist” as Gumilev called himself, but an initiator of one of the versions of neo-Eurasianism, see Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism, p. 81
- 28 Mark Bassin, The Gumilev Mystique: Biopolitics, Eurasianism and the Construction of Community in Modern Russia, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 2016, pp. 55-59.
- 29 Vügar İmanov, “Geçmişle Hal Arasında ‘Son Avrasyacı’: Lev Nikolayeviç Gumilev (1912-1992)”, Akademik Araştırmalar Dergisi, No 23, 2004-2005, p. 157.
- 30 Ibid.; Bassin, The Gumilev Mystique, pp. 105-106.
- 31 Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism, p. 83. This does not, of course mean that neo-Eurasianism is strictly limited to Dugin. Neo-Eurasianism also has followers in different circles as well. See, İmanov, Avrasyacılık, pp. 213-239.
- 32 Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism, p. 116.
- 33 Ibid., p. 116-117; İmanov, Avrasyacılık, pp. 204-206.
- 34 Laruelle, Russian Eurasianism, p. 118.
- 35 Ibid., p. 113.
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| APA | YANIK L (2019). Debating Eurasia: Political Travels of a Geographical Concept in Turkey. Uluslararası İlişkiler, 16(63), 33 - 50. |
| Chicago | YANIK Lerna K. Debating Eurasia: Political Travels of a Geographical Concept in Turkey. Uluslararası İlişkiler 16, no.63 (2019): 33 - 50. |
| MLA | YANIK Lerna K. Debating Eurasia: Political Travels of a Geographical Concept in Turkey. Uluslararası İlişkiler, vol.16, no.63, 2019, ss.33 - 50. |
| AMA | YANIK L Debating Eurasia: Political Travels of a Geographical Concept in Turkey. Uluslararası İlişkiler. 2019; 16(63): 33 - 50. |
| Vancouver | YANIK L Debating Eurasia: Political Travels of a Geographical Concept in Turkey. Uluslararası İlişkiler. 2019; 16(63): 33 - 50. |
| IEEE | YANIK L "Debating Eurasia: Political Travels of a Geographical Concept in Turkey." Uluslararası İlişkiler, 16, ss.33 - 50, 2019. |
| ISNAD | YANIK, Lerna K.. "Debating Eurasia: Political Travels of a Geographical Concept in Turkey". Uluslararası İlişkiler 16/63 (2019), 33-50. |
