The process of transition to a market economy and then Turkey- Russia economic relationships

The economic policy chosen by policymakers and the healthy functioning of this policy have a great impact on development of economic structures of countries. In this context, with centralized planned economy the former socialist countries that cannot provide sufficient economic growth have preferred move to market economy. Even if the market economic structure replacing the socialist system which lost its importance with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990's has opened the doors of the European Union to some countries in a short time, it exposed some countries to unexpected shocks. The term of transition economies have occurred for countries which in the process of overcoming the shock. Transition economies refer to the former socialist countries, which abandoned central planning and tried to establish system of market economy. The fact that prices are free during the transition to the market economy has brought about the decline in production. In this process, one of the former socialist countries, the Russian Federation, lost its power and internal turmoil caused economic crisis. The Russian Federation, which is in economic crisis during the transition to the market economy has preferred to be more close to the Turkey which its relations are based on the Soviet Union for the effectiveness of the Russian Federation's energy resources and foreign capital investments. One of the reasons of want to keep tight economic ties of Russia with Turkey is geographical proximity and other is the economies of both countries complement each other. On the other hand, Turkey is a big commercial market for the Russian Federation. In this study, Turkey-Russia economic relations has been analyzed that by qualitative research methods using the statistical data in terms of foreign trade, contracting services, energy resources and tourism. It has concluded that the political tensions between the two countries caused economic fluctuations and the result of this both countries economy was affected negatively from this situation. Keywords: Transition Economy, Economic Relations, Market Economy, Turkish-Russian relations