Turkey and Russia in the Black Sea Region: Dynamics of Cooperation and Conflict

The Black Sea region was the main area where the Ottoman and the Russian Empires struggled for regional dominance at the expense of the other. This rivalry for regional hegemony continued between their future states, modern Turkey and the Soviet Union, with the exception of the 1920s, especially during the Cold War period. The initial hopes that Turkey’s cooperation with the post-Soviet Russia could transform the Black Sea region into a democratic zone of international cooperation and economic development were dashed when both countries became involved in a fierce struggle for regional influence not only in the post-Soviet regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus, but also in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterrenean throughout the 1990s.