23 July 2024

Pan-Turkism 2024

https://www.asianews.it/news-en/The-Turanian-World-advance-in-Central-Asia-60912.html

Neo-Ottomanism is not exactly the same as Pan-Turkism but the concepts can and often do overlap. Neo-Ottomanism is about leveraging Ankara's placement, the fact that Türkiye straddles Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. Via the Black Sea and the Caucasus it is able to access the Turkish populations of Central Asia - and this is where the Pan-Turkism comes in. Ankara is able to exert itself culturally into the region and it's natural that economic and other diplomatic relations would ensue.

The United States long supported these efforts as a means for its own entrance into Central Asia. It was critical to wrest these nations away from the Russian sphere which so long held them. The US has no legitimate claims to enter or influence the region and yet it's long-time ally Türkiye certainly does. Throughout the Cold War, Ankara was a proxy for the United States and yet this began to change with the rise of Erdogan in the early 2000's. September 11 opened many doors to US objectives in Central Asia but they heavily relied on Ankara's cooperation. With Erdogan this went sideways and the US has wanted rid of him for over twenty years - but he is tenacious and clings to power.

And now after all these years Erdogan is making his own efforts and expanding Turkish interests in the region. Apart from the Persian-related Tajiks, the rest of Central Asia's population is Turkic and there are close linguistic and cultural ties between the nations. The people of Central Asia are the living ancestors of modern Türkiye it might be said - which is a mix of Turkic peoples along with Caucasians, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, and not a few Slav, Albanian, and Bulgar descendants from the days when the Ottoman Empire dominated the Balkans.

Ankara has been to keen to back Azerbaijan in its dealings with Armenia even while Baku continues to orient itself toward the West and the West's Middle-Eastern satellite - Israel.

The elephant in the room that is not mentioned in the article is China. Beijing has moved into the region as well and yet the nations of Central Asia know that Chinese domination will not be any better than being ruled by Moscow. As such, Ankara remains an attractive alternative - something the US always knew to be the case and yet a reality Washington is no longer able to benefit from. The plan was well underway with the Afghan invasion of 2001 - but lost its way in the sands of Iraq.

See also:

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2013/07/pan-turkism-and-21st-century-great-game.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2021/05/turkeys-foreign-policy-kirghiz-tajik.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2016/02/pan-turkism-russia-china-and-tibet.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2021/11/erdogan-central-asia-and-great-game-in.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2016/07/theres-something-rotten-in-istanbul-and.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2020/10/kyrgyzstans-latest-round-of-unrest.html

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2018/09/american-evangelicalism-china-and-all.html

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2013/03/neo-ottomanism.html

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