ABSTRACT
Introduction: Turkey and the end of the Cold War The collapse of Soviet power in eastern Europe, and the subsequent dissolution of the USSR, transformed the international situation of Turkey, like that of all the neighbours of the former Soviet state. At the outset of these changes, it was often concluded that Turkey had lost its former international importance, which derived from its value to the Western alliance as the linch-pin of NATO defences in the eastern Mediterranean. Before long, however, more positive reactions became the norm. As an example, in a newspaper interview given in December 1989, the former premier Bülent Ecevit pointed out that the transformation of Turkey’s strategic situation “should be a cause of satisfaction rather than regret” since the dramatic reduction of the risk of war was bound to be a gain; on the other hand, new dangers were likely to arise.2 In fact, it soon became clear that the transformation of its international environment presented Turkey with a changed, but not diminished, international role. This sometimes led to wildly exaggerated notions of its future international importance-including, for instance, the idea that it would become a kind of regional superpower, in a zone extending from the Adriatic to western China.
