FROM THE „CENTRAL CAUCASUS” TO THE „CENTRAL CAUCASO-ASIA” (Geopolitical Dimensions)
Abstract
The contemporary geopolitical interpretation of the term the “Caucasus” dates to when Russia conquered the region. Russia’s presence coined the terms “Trans-Caucasus” or “Transcaucasia” alluding to the region beyond the main Caucasian mountain range if viewed from Russia and the “North Caucasus,” referring to the territory to the north of the mountain range. The Russian tradition dominated the international practice of identifying the region.
Early in the 1990s, when the Soviet Union disappeared and the three republics - Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia - regained their independence, the term “Trans-Caucasus” was replaced by a more correct term of the “South Caucasus.” Russia alone continued using the old term. Few academics stop to ponder significantly on the fact that the term of the “South Caucasus” (as well as the “Trans-Caucasus”) reflects the purely Russian geopolitical approach to the region. The terms of the “Northern Caucasus” and the “Southern Caucasus” perpetuate the new, and the old, Russian borders in the region.
According to Eldar Ismailov, the Caucasus consists not only of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and the Russian Federation entities but it also covers the northeastern Turkish areas and the northwestern parts of Iran. This division is based on the fact that the Turkish and Iranian regions have been populated by Caucasian peoples from time immemorial. The Caucasian region consists not of two (the Northern and Southern Caucasus) parts but of three parts: the Central Caucasus (made up of three independent states - Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), the Northern Caucasus (made up of the Russian Federation’s autonomous units bordering the Caucasus) and the Southern Caucasus which covers the Turkish provinces bordering Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia (the Southwestern Caucasus) and northwestern ostanha of Iran (the southeastern Caucasus).
Academic circles are presently showing a great interest in studying the problems of the three Central Caucasian countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) and the five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) within the same context. The region represented by these eight states is now called Central Eurasia.
If we proceed from the notion that the eight republics discussed here form two sub-regions- the Central Caucasus and Central Asia—the larger region, which simultaneously includes both sub-regions, can be called Central Caucaso-Asia. This preserves the term “Central” as the key determinant for both regions while the new term, “Caucaso-Asia,” is derived from two related terms; namely, “Caucasus” and “Asia.”
The idea of post-Soviet state independence and its strengthening, as the linchpin of state interests for the Central Caucaso-Asian states, rules out their acceptance not only of Eurasianism but also of the Heartland theory. They both assert their subordination to the imperial schemes of Russia and the West.
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