Turkey-Russian relations after Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant agreement

Industrialization and the rapid population growth in developing countries as it is the case in Turkey, causes the need for energy that led to enormous problems and also new initiatives. Fossil fuels which constitutes the largest portion of the imported items in current account deficit, makes Turkey increasingly dependent on outside as a developing country. Both insufficiency in renewable resources and problems in using own resources; pave the way for making many energy deals while pursueing constantly changing energy policies. The necessity for cooperation on both Turkey and Russia as a result of their national and international interests leads to interdependence at different levels further affect each other both economically and politically. This study aims to explain the factors affecting these relationships and to what extend these factors prevail. In particular, while solving the problem of Turkey's energy requirement, political instability and conflicts in neighboring countries can cause important problems in energy security. Hence, the idea of providing income and gaining prominent strategic position on energy resources which has been transported to the West over Caucasus since the dissolution of the USSR entail Russia and Turkey work in the same field consistently. The fact that Turkey can not meet the energy needs from its own resources and the acceleration of cooperation with Russia with Erdogan-Putin diplomacy after the AKP rule provides unity in the field of energy; to meet the demand of Turkey's energy towards the establishment of a nuclear power plant in Mersin Akkuyu has led two countries to make an agreement. In this study, the relations between the two countries were examined in an economic framework and the effect of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant agreement on the relations was analyzed. As a result of the findings; due to the chain of long-term natural gas pipeline agreements linking the two countries besides Akkuyu NGS agreement, in the case of possible diffuculties on relations with Russia will definitaly have big impact on Turkey and the conclusion is that the energy dependence of the country can be solved by diversifying the energy sources. Keywords: Energy, dependency, Akkuyu, Nuclear Power Plant, Russia, natural gas