This study highlights the development of Turkish-Russian relations from a historical perspective, and attempts to evaluate the crisis in Karabakh on the bilateral relations between the two countries, as Russia is a constant source of concern for Turkey, but on the other hand, the two countries see that the continuation of strong relations is of great importance for the two countries.
This paper also examines the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, one of the most prominent and longest conflicts in the post-Soviet space, which is still in place today. This paper also examines the dimensions of this regional conflict between Russia and Turkey, as the Caucasus region is of strategic importance for each of them. Turkey’s interest in the Republic of Azerbaijan is due to the common social and historical reality between the two people, in addition to the economic factor, as Azerbaijan is considered one of the countries bordering the Caspian Sea and its huge energy wealth, and this is basically what caught Turkey’s attention. As for Russia’s interest in it, the southern region is considered Russia’s belongings and forms its regional security.
Two approaches were relied on in this study, first the historical method and the approach to systems analysis. The research also extracted a basic conclusion that each of the Turkish and Russian projects stand alone. The research also excludes direct confrontation between the two countries in the Caucasus if their visions differ. The two countries are fully aware of the seriousness of such a confrontation in the Caucasus.