Eurasianism and the Concept of Central Caucaso-Asia

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Eldar Ismailov and Vladimer Papava
Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and partly Afghanistan,
Pakistan, and even the Middle East. 305 According to the previous
interpretation, the region covers a small part of Central Asia and stretches
beyond the territories of the eight countries. According to the latter
interpretation, the region comprises the above eight states and also many
other states, to say nothing of regions, which is not completely justified.
Including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, as well
as the corresponding parts of Iran and Russia in the “Caspian Basin region”
can be considered a little more propitious, 306 although including Armenia and
Georgia in this region can hardly be justified. And if we agree with this
approach and admit that these two countries, which do not have direct access
to the Caspian Sea, do indeed belong to this region, the question seems to be
why Iran and Russia should be only partially included into the group of
countries of the “Caspian Basin region?”
The term “the Caspian region” does not accurately describe the region
comprising the eight states enumerated above. The term “the Caucasian-
Caspian region” can likewise not be accepted as a definition of the eight
republics. Those who use it imply that it covers the entire Caucasus, yet fail
to specify the degree to which the Central Asian region is included in it. 307
What is more, they tend to write the “Caucasian-Caspian and Central Asian
regions,” 308 which seems to emphasize that Central Asia is outside the
Caucasian-Caspian region. In the wider and thus vaguer interpretation, the
Caucasian-Caspian region implies the entire basin of the Caspian Sea, the
western provinces of Central Asia, the Northern Caucasus, the eastern
regions of Turkey and northern regions of Iran, and part of the Black Sea
305 Brent Sasley, “The Intersection of Geography and Resources: Geopolitics in the
Caspian Sea Basin,” in Lasha Tchantouridze, ed., Geopolitics: Global Problems and
Regional Concerns (Winnipeg: Centre for Defence and Security Studies, University of
Manitoba, 2004), p. 194.
306 Weitz, Kazakhstan and the New International Politics of Eurasia, p. 9.
307 Igor Dobaev and Alexander Dugin, “Geopolitical Transformations in the
Caucasian-Caspian Region,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 5 (35) (2005), p. 75.
308 Ibid., p. 77.