Turkey and Russia still “see themselves as empires, and, as
a general rule, an empire’s political philosophy is one of universalism and
exceptionalism. In other words, empires
don’t have friends – they have either enemies or dependencies,” said
Mr. Torbakov, the Eurasia scholar, or exist in what Russian strategists term “imperial
or geopolitical solitude.”
Mr. Erdogan’s vision of a modern-day Ottoman empire encompasses
the Turkic and Muslim world. Different groups of Russian strategists promote concepts
of Russia as a state that has to continuously act as an empire or as a unique
“state civilization” devoid of expansionist ambition despite its
premise of a Russian World that embraces the primacy of Russian culture as well
as tolerance for non-Russian cultures. Both notions highlight the pitfalls of
their nations’ history and Eurasianism.