ABSTRACT
W hen the ussr collapsed in 1991, Turkey, backed by the US Administration of President Bush, attempted to pick up the pieces in the Black Sea, Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Turkey thus revived both the Eastern Question and the old Great Game, that is, the contest of Russia and foreign states for influence and power in the Black Sea littoral and Central Asia respectively. Yet by early 1994 Turkey’s policies lay in ruins, forcing it to rethink them. 1 The reasons for this outcome make up this essay’s main subject. 2
