Organization of turkic states: Cooperation among Turkic world count-ries and their impact on international relations

This thesis examines the establishment process of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) by focusing on the transformation of regional power balances and the structural changes in the inter-national system before and after the Cold War. The end of the Cold War brought about a shift toward multipolarity in international relations, leading states to adopt new foreign policy orientations and increasing the significance of regional organizations. In particular, following the 1990s, the inde-pendence of the Turkic Republics in the former Soviet geography marked not only a turning point in their domestic political structures but also introduced a new paradigm in terms of regional security, economic cooperation, and multilateral diplomacy within the context of integration into the interna-tional system. In this context, the study evaluates the emergence of the OTS not merely as a product of cul-tural and historical commonalities but rather as a response to the evolving nature of the international system and the structural needs and pressures it has generated. Global shocks such as the 2001 terro-rist attacks, the global financial crisis, the Arab Spring of 2011, and the COVID-19 pandemic after 2020 have caused significant fluctuations in the international order, prompting states to seek deeper regional cooperation and enhance multilateral collaboration. The thesis argues that the OTS emer-ged as a strategic response to these global dynamics and that its institutional structure has evolved in parallel with such developments. It is emphasized that the OTS does not merely rely on symbolic ties among its member sta-tes, but rather seeks to establish concrete political, economic, and strategic partnerships. In this res-pect, it aligns with the broader tendencies of contemporary regional organizations. Within the scope of the thesis, the institutionalization tendencies of the organization, its foreign policy reflexes, secu-rity approaches, and its positions in the face of regional crises are analyzed in depth. The study aims to assess the impact of the post-Cold War transformation of the international system on the Turkic world and systematically examine the structural motivations behind the founding of the OTS. Accordingly, throughout the thesis, how the reshaped geopolitical panorama of the post-Cold War era brought the Turkic states together and which international dynamics played a decisive role in this process are examined in detail. Furthermore, the fundamental parameters and driving forces behind the OTS's increasing focus on cooperation and institutionalization are analyzed wit-hin the framework of the Turkic world's perception of global politics and the international system, and this transformation is thoroughly evaluated in relation to the emerging dynamics of the post-Cold War period.