Competitive cooperation
Russia and Turkey in the Caucasus
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In the Caucasus region, the interests of Turkey and Russia meet head to head. Occasionally, they are compatible. Both states are interested in stability for domestic policy reasons. Over three million people in Turkey have Caucasian roots. The North Caucasus, which belongs to Russia, is indissolubly bound up with the manifold conflicts raging in the South Caucasus. The region is of strategic importance to both states. In terms of energy and security policy and the ethnoterritorial conflicts in the South Caucasus, Russia and Turkey are pursuing opposing interests. However, in the process, both states have found a modus vivendi that can be described as “competitive cooperation” or “asymmetric interdependence”.
(Osteuropa 10-12/2018, pp. 353–365)