Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Yönetim Bilimleri Dergisi, cilt.21, sa.50, ss.1227-1245, 2023 (Hakemli Dergi)
On 24 February 2022, Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, announced to the world that a "military operation" would be carried out against Ukraine upon the call of the Donbas republics, which he had decided to officially recognize on 21 February. The military operation that started afterwards has created great debates not only in terms of international politics but also in terms of international law. In his speech, Putin referred to the legality and legitimacy discourses that Western States, particularly the United States, have been using in various military operations since the end of the Cold War and used them for Russia's operations. In this Article, regarding Putin's statements, Russia's justifications for the military operation are analyzed in the context of the relationship between legality and legitimacy, which is one of the ancient issues of legal philosophy. The main argument of the study is that due to the non-objective nature of international law, each sovereign can find the legal arguments that will suit its interests among the sources of international law and legitimize its actions within this legal discourse. In other words, international law is determined through international politics, shaped according to the balances of international politics and its effectiveness is dependent on international politics. When states have the power and capacity to take the action required by their interests, they do not hesitate to violate international law, and they also weave a supra-legal legitimacy cover for their actions. In this context, between equal rights, international law has to turn to the favor of political power.