TURKEY AS A "REGIONAL STABILITY CONTRIBUTOR" IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS/TÜRKIYE'NIN GÜNEY KAFKASYA'DAKI "BÖLGESEL GÜVENLIK SAGLAYICISI" OLARAK ROLÜ

Turkey's changing roles in world politics have lately been attracting significant scholarly attention. The goal of this article is to elaborate on Turkey's role as a "regional stability contributor" in the South Caucasus by employing "role theory", an approach used in international relations studies since the 1970s. The article will particularly focus on the Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform (CSCP) initiative that was proposed by Turkish policymakers in the wake of the 2008 Russian-Georgian war. The CSCP can be taken as an important sign of Turkish leaders' emerging conception of Turkey's role as a contributor to stability in its region. This notion is theoretically based on the two categories of national role conception that have been elaborated in role theory: "mediator-integrator" and "regional-subsystem collaborator". [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]