An Analysis of the Relations of Russia and Turkey on the Basis of Liberalism Theory (2002-2014)

The relations between Russia and Turkey expanded considerably from the beginning of 21th century particularly after coming into power of Justice and Development Party (AKP). Taking into consideration the expansion of relations between the two, the present paper wants to answer this question whether the expansion of economic relations between Russia and Turkey between 2002 to 2014 have led to expansion of political relations between the two? This question is based on one of the main assumption of liberalism theory i.e. economic interdependence leads to political cooperation. The underlying hypothesis of the article which is examined by a descriptive analytical method is that between 2002 to 2014 the economic relations between Turkey and Russia has had a noticeable growth and parallel to that the political relations between the two expanded but political integration has received lesser impact from political cooperation. The political integration has been influenced from variables other than economy and trade. The examination of the above hypothesis shows that in analyzing the ties between the countries one cannot rely on one theoretical approach but a collection of different approaches should be used to analyze their relations.