Abstract:

Although it is thought that the cold war between The USA and USSR ended in 1990s with the collapse of communism, history repeats itself and we witness that it continues in 2000s where it left. The analysts from the USA knew that Russia would regain its strength, object to the one pole hegemony system of the USA and make a big effort to be a leading power in international system rather than a leaded one. In accordance with the USA predictions, Russia gathered strength by performing economic and political improvement between 1990-2000. Since beginning of 2000’s, Russia argued against US operation towards Afghanistan and Iraq and Russia said no to the USA centered one pole world system and US progression with its attitude towards revolutions in region after 2003, and prospective NATO/EU membership of Georgia and Ukraine in 2008 and later. In a Ukraine-centered and Cyprus-related crisis in November 2013, Russia came to realize that The West desires to surround itself and restrict its authority. Possessing serious concern about deepening relationship of Ukraine with EU, its probable NATO membership, Russia at first occupied a place which has great strategic importance and intense Russian minority population, in other words Russia prompted Russian citizens and soldiers and occupied Crimea, subsequently annexed it in a way that international law wouldn’t allow. This study attempts to analyse the process which started with Ukraine-centered event and continued with annexation of Crimea, investigate the roles the USA and Russia play in crisis process and dissertations about annexation of Crimea, and subsequently discuss whether Russian annexation of Ukraine-controlled Autonomous Republic of Crimea is appropriate in terms of international law. Also in this analysis, it is attempted to answer the questions like “What does self-determination mean and in what conditions it is applied?, Is it appropriate in terms of international law that Crimea declares its independency and gets under control of Russia by attributing it to self-determination policy?, Why did Crimea become the centre of crisis?, What is strategic importance of Crimea for Russia and what is redline of Russia in region?.

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