The importance of Caspian region in terms of Turkey's energy policies: An empirical application

The Caspian Sea oil and gas region was rapidly included in the 21st century world energy market as a new energy region, and it developed at the same pace, reshaping the world energy market. In this thesis, the Caspian Sea energy region, the resources of the region, the countries of the region, their production potential and energy policies, the non-regional powers that are effective in the region and the policies they follow are examined. Within the scope of the study, the energy policy of Turkey, which is one of the influential non-regional countries in the Caspian Sea region, in the 21st century has been discussed in detail with a systemic approach, and Turkey's strategic plans have been shed light on the intersecting energy policies of the influential economic powers in the Caspian Sea region. In this context, Turkey's transformation into a regional energy center was emphasized and the political and economic gains of the country in this direction were analyzed. Within the scope of these analyses, statistical estimations about Turkey's energy indicators have been made within the conditions that have occurred in the last 20 years. For this, the Artificial Neural Network approach based on Group Data Processing Method was used and predictions were made for years until 2030. Within the scope of the analysis of Turkey's energy policies, a SWOT analysis of the country's transformation into an energy center has been carried out and many factors that are effective today have been taken into account. The analyzes have shown that Turkey's strengths are more than its weaknesses, and the opportunities are more than the threats, on the way to becoming an energy center. Many of these opportunities are supported by strengths, allowing to create strong strategies.