A Study of Turkey’s Strategy in the Caspian Sea and Middle East Region

Turkey’s energy consumption has been increasing during recent years due to the country’s economic growth. This issue, accompanied by inadequate fossil fuel (oil and gas) resources, is one of the most effective elements in turkey’s foreign relations with the most important energy providing countries which provide energy for turkey. In addition to studying Turkey’s energy strategy regarding Azerbaijan and Iraq, this research tries to assess the success or failure of this strategy. The main question of this paper states: turkey’s energy strategy towards Azerbaijan and Iraq has been shaped based on which elements and how is it evaluated? The hypothesis of the research is that turkey’s energy strategy is based on diversifying energy (oil and gas) providing countries and reducing reliance on limited number of countries in providing energy and on the basis of this approach, turkey has been paying more attention to Caspian Sea and Middle East regions, especially the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iraq. The findings of this research, which has been conducted on the basis of descriptive-analytical method, indicates the expansion of Turkey’s relations with Azerbaijan and Iraq based on the volume of oil and gas exchanges and diversity of energy lines with the centrality of Turkey; this shows that turkey’s energy strategy has been successful.