Russian Politics towards East Anatolia from the Perspective of Russian-Turkish Reletions

Abstract

Within a general perspective it is possible to say that the period of war and tension which commenced between the Ottoman Empire and Russia in 1700 is the longest war period ever been witnessed worldwide. During this period of war, parties have developed various strategies in compliance with military-political regulations of the period. These strategies generally consisted of physical attacks aimed to destroy the military and economic forces of the opposing side. However in the 19th century political comprehension elaborated much more intricate speculations and the military strategies which were the continuance of these policies were affected by these speculations. These attempts aiming to deplete the power of the opposing state and to create internal unrest especially by exploiting ethnical structures engendered distressed times for multinational states. Because of this policy, states began to attain their objects with lower costs by provocating riots in the region and making them turn their back on their rulers or by separating their lands from that of opposing side's and consequently conquering the land easily. This political comprehension arouse in the beginning of the 19th century in Russia. While planning to separate the Bulgarians, Serbians, Croatians and Greeks of the Balkans from the Ottoman Empire by planting Panslavist ideology, Russia also developed strategies in order to incite chaos and make them break up from the Empire by inseminating religious uniformity ideologies among Armenians in the southern region and nationalist ideologies among Kurdish people. During the implementation of these strategies Russians benefited from the advantages of having an extremely dynamic science community. Even world-renowned scientists haven't abstained from manipulating the science while making publications within the circle of these policies. Their works have given rise to important political incidences in the Ottoman Empire. Thus we may state that the theories produced in the universities in Moscow, Petersburg and other important cities were put into practice with the help of agents and consuls within the borders of Ottoman Empire. In our paper we will attempt to clear up an important matter which has long been subject of debate by explicating the policies of Russia over Armenians and Kurds and especially by studying the social disunity and disagreement in the 19th century revealed thanks to historiography.