Turkey’s Policy toward South Caucasus: The cases of Nagorno-Karabakh and Abkhazia Conflicts

Abstract

The purpose of the current Master’s thesis is to study Turkey’s Foreign Policy toward South Caucasian conflicts, namely Nagorno-Karabakh and Abkhazia and to identify the factors that influence its foreign policy formulation towards Nagorno-Karabakh and Abkhazian conflicts. The current research also reviews what has changed in the Turkish foreign policy so far. The research provides background about the conflicts, further parallels are drawn to changes in Turkey’s foreign policy and change of its approach towards the conflicts over Nagorno-Karabakh and Abkhazia. The essay also discusses Turkey’s role in the Nagorno-Karabakh and Abkhazian conflicts separately and later provides with findings on Turkey’s approach towards both conflicts and the factors influencing its foreign policy formulation and concludes by stating that Turkey had different approaches towards both conflicts because its foreign policy is shaped through different channels and different factors influence it foreign policy formulation.