Abstract
RUSSIA IN THE RESOLUTION/NON-RESOLUTION OF THE SYRIAN CRISIS DURING THE FIRST TWO YEARS
The process of “Arab Spring” beginning in Tunisia and spreading to the Middle East brings radical changes together in the region. Syria forms the recent and the most painful chain of this process. Because of the conditions special to Syria, the Arab Spring which is experienced in North Africa has led to a long-lasting instability in Syrian territory.
The main factor complicating the Syria issue in terms of international politics has been the different and conflicting approaches and positions of the regional and global actors being directly and indirectly involved in the process. By being an actor, the critical attitude of Turkey, the Irans’s unconditional support to the Assad regime against The USA and E.U’s calls to the Assad government to leave the power and the Russia’s and China’s vetos to the United Nations’ sanctions, all reflect the general aspect of the parties’ conflicting positions. In terms of its outcomes, Syria conflict seems to have the potential both to affect Middle East and world politics.
The aim of this study is to analyze in detail the approaches of Russia to the Syrian conflict as a current international issue as well as Russia’s attempts to solve the problem. Russia’s foreign policy, as a regional and global actor, includes both normative and realist components. With a deductive methodology, the Syrian conflict which is firstly placed in the general framework of Russia’s approach to Arab Spring would be analyzed in respect to Russian’s perception and understanding of its own interests and world politics. The internal and external factors and dynamics being effective on the formation of Russia’s approach to the Syrian conflict would be discussed in terms of the continuity/change in the policies that are pursued by Russia within the framework of Arab Spring. Finally, on the conceptual basis of Russian foreign policy, its counter position to the humanitarian intervention and practice would be evaluated.
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Keywords
Russian Foreign Policy, Syrian Conflict, sovereign democracy discourse, humanitarian intervention