The pillars of Türkiye’s constructed revisionist vision of the South Caucasus policy, 2002–2024

As a part of the post-Ottoman space, the South Caucasus plays a key role alongside the Middle East and the Balkans in Türkiye’s aspirations to emerge as a great power. While the concept of revisionism has been examined in various contexts, the ideational elements of its construction are still unexplored. This paper addresses this gap by exploring how Türkiye constructed its revisionist foreign policy vision toward the South Caucasus from 2002 to 2024. Using thematic analysis of speeches and interviews of the period under study from the official governmental websites of the Presidency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the study identifies three key pillars or ideational aspects of Türkiye’s revisionist construction: Turkish historical responsibility, justice, and anti-colonialism. These findings show that these pillars are interconnected and supported by ideologies, which justify Turkiye’s regional activism as a moral obligation. This paper adds to larger discussions of how rising powers shape and justify revisionist behaviour through ideational narratives rather than just material interests.