Why Russia and Türkiye understand ‘Two States, One Nation’ very differently

The concept of ‘Two States, One Nation’ is used by both Türkiye and Russia but in very different ways. Türkiye applies the ‘Two States, One Nation’ (İki Dövlət, Bir Millət) concept towards its eastern neighbour Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, Russia applies the concept to Ukraine and Belarus, writes Taras Kuzio.

The roots of different Russian and Turkish approaches are to be found in their national identities which were submerged within the Tsarist and Ottoman Empires respectfully. Unlike the English and French, Russians and Turks never had nation-states before they built their empires.

Nevertheless, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk successfully built a post-imperial Turkish republic in the 1920s. Meanwhile, Russia remained an imperial power after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and President Boris Yeltsyn failed to transform Russia into a post-imperial state. The USSR and Russia underwent two coup attempts in August 1991 and Fall 1993 by hardline alliances of Soviet nostalgists, imperial Orthodox nationalists and neo-fascists.

Atatürk was a civic nationalist who turned his back on the Ottoman Empire. Post-communist Russia never had a civic nationalist equivalent of Atatürk and thereby imperial nationalism remained the dominant ideology and identity throughout most of the post-Soviet era. Russian identity was never confined to the borders of the Russian SFSR or Russian Federation. Russians have always imagined ‘Russia’ as something bigger as the USSR, CIS, Eurasia, Russian Union, or Russian World. Russia President Vladimir Putin described the USSR as ‘Historic Russia’ (Kremlin, July 12, 2021).

In the 1996 Russian elections, Yeltsyn campaigned on a pan-Slavic platform of uniting Russia and Belarus. With Belarus secured as part of the pan-Russian World, Putin has been obsessed with uniting Russia and Ukraine. In 2014, Putin launched a limited Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea. Ukrainian Presidents Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyyrefused to permit the two Minsk Accords to transform Ukraine into a Russian puppet state (Institute for the Study of War, February 11, 2025). Putin launched a ‘special military operation’ on February 24, 2022, that has led to a full-scale war and global conflict between the Axis of Upheaval (Russia, Iran, North Korea, China) and the West

Post-imperial Türkiye respects Azerbaijani culture, language and traditions. Putin and Russian imperial nationalists deny the existence of a Ukrainian people by claiming they are a Little Russian branch of a triune (trinity) pan-Russian people. Türkiye signed important treaties in 2010 and 2021 that recognised Azerbaijan as an equal, sovereign and separate country. Putin and Russian imperial nationalists dismiss Ukraine as an artificial entity and a US puppet state. Russian imperial nationalists deride the Ukrainian language as a dialect.

Türkiye is a post-imperial state that traces its roots to Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic of the Turkish republic and leader of the Turkish National Movement. Atatürk abolished the Ottoman Sultanate in 1922 and created a republic the following year.

As president of the Turkish republic from 1923-1938, Atatürk launched far ranging reforms that modernised and industrialised Türkiye. In the 1930s, women in Türkiye received equal political rights and the right to vote, a radical step that preceded the granting of this right to founding members of the European Union such as France (1944), Italy (1945), and neighbouring Greece (1952). Atatürk’s secular nationalist ‘Kemalism’ has continued to remain the guiding ideology of Türkiye to this day.

Azerbaijan became an independent state in 1918 on the ruins of the Tsarist Empire. In that same year, the Azerbaijan Democratic (People’s) Republic granted women the right to vote making it the first Islamic country to provide the franchise to women. Two years later Azerbaijan was invaded and occupied by Russian Bolsheviks and forcefully incorporated into the Soviet Union. Many Azerbaijani intellectuals moved to Türkiye where they could support cultural, educational and political projects that were not permitted in the Soviet Union.

Türkiye and Azerbaijan share a Turkish identity and similar languages. At the same time, Türkiye and Azerbaijan’s concept of ‘Two States, One Nation’ is built around different histories. Türkiye emerged from the Ottoman Empire which existed from 1301-1922. Azerbaijan was divided by the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay with the territory north of the Aras River incorporated into the Tsarist Empire and the larger and more populous Azerbaijani territory south of the Aras River remaining part of Iran. Azerbaijan north of the Aras River existed as an independent state in 1918-1920, between 1922-1991 was one of fifteen Soviet republics and since 1991 has been an independent state. Türkiye was the first country to recognise Azerbaijan’s independence from the USSR.

Türkiye has eight times the number of inhabitants of Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, because it as a post-imperial republic, Türkiye views Azerbaijan as an equal and not – as in the case of Russian attitudes towards Ukraine and Belarus - a ‘younger brother.’ Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Türkiye and Azerbaijan ‘have a common history, culture, language and religion. They are two brotherly countries…One is exalted and so is the other one (Azerbaijan State News Agency, September 7, 2020). Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev emphasised that ‘Turkey-Azerbaijan friendship is unshakable and eternal’ (Azerbaijan State News Agency, September 7, 2020).

Russia and Ukraine signed a treaty recognising their border in 1997 which was ratified by both houses of the Russian parliament over the next two years. This came on the back of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum which had provided security guarantees for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in exchange for giving up the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal. Russia infringed the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and 1997 treaty when it launched two invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.

Russia and Türkiye have diametrically different attitudes towards international law and the sanctity of the territorial integrity of states. Türkiye has battled Kurdish separatism for decades and has defended Libya’s territorial integrity against Russian Wagner mercenaries and Libyan warlords.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and four Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson in 2022. Armenia used the so-called ‘self-determination’ of Crimea to claim Karabakh had a similar right to ‘self-determination’ from Azerbaijan. In United Nations votes, Armenia therefore voted with Russia against resolutions denouncing Russian annexation of Ukrainian lands.

In contrast, Türkiye has supported the territorial integrity of both Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Erdogan said this month Türkiye will never recognize Crimea as belonging to Russia (Daily Sabah, 16 March, 2025). Türkiye has conditioned its readiness to ‘normalize’ relations with Armenia and open their common border after Yerevan and Baku sign a peace agreement. After years of negotiations, Armenia and Azerbaijan look set to sign a bilateral treaty that recognizes their border as based on former Soviet republican boundaries (Radio Liberty Armenian Service, 18 March, 2025).

Ukrainians have no trust in agreements and treaties signed with Russia. Zelenskyy said Russia violated twenty-five ceasefires from 2014-2021 (Lvivskyy Portal, 24 February, 2025).

In November 2020, Azerbaijan defeated Armenia in the Second Karabakh War and re-took most of its territory that had been occupied by Armenia since the early 1990s. A year later, in June 2021, Türkiye and Azerbaijan signed a ‘Declaration on Allied Relations’ which cemented their strategic partnership in the military, security, economic and energy fields (Azerbaijan President Office, 16 June, 2021). Türkiye is one of two important military partners, the other being Israel, for Azerbaijan (see EDM, 26 March, 2025).

Russia and Türkiye pursue the concept of ‘Two States, One Nation’ in different ways because the former never divested itself of its imperial identity while the latter has held a post-imperial identity for the past century. Russia refuses to accept Ukraine as a separate country and erroneously claims Ukrainians are Little Russians. In contrast, Türkiye’s respect for Azerbaijan’s statehood, sovereignty, territorial integrity and national identity is a good model of inter-state relations.

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