The Influence of Pan-Turkism on the Political Identity Formation of the Turkic States of Central Asia in the XXI Century (Part 1)

Abstract

The negative tone of statements about pan-Turkism and Turkey’s policy in the post-Soviet space in the Central Asian region prevails in the Russian media. Indeed, pan-Turkism is a strong factor in the emerging statehood of the newly independent states of the region. At the same time, and it is important to emphasize this, it is not the only and far from defining one. His influence manifested itself mainly in the first half of the 1990s. All the authors note the role of Turkey at the initial stage of the sovereignty of the countries of this region. Then, first, due to lack of resources, its influence in Central Asia began to wane. New players appeared in the region, representing the interests of Western countries and China. Russian economic, military, and political influence also became more stable and weightier. Turkey’s attempts in the XXI century to achieve new successes in promoting its interests based on the values of Turkism did not lead to the expected results. Economic and military-political competitors continued to outpace it, and their successes encouraged Ankara to make measurements during its policy. She became more and more realistic and pragmatic. For a few reasons, during the first decade of the new century, the Turkish upper classes somewhat cooled down to pan-Turkism. At the same time, the elites of the Central Asian countries got a taste of state nationalism and, cultivating their own values, emphasized their sovereignty and the right to a multi-vector foreign policy. Overcoming their dependence on Moscow, they also demonstrated their unwillingness to follow in the wake of Ankara’s interests. In the conditions оf De-globalization and fragmentation that began after the global crisis of 2008–2009 pan-Turkism is once again becoming an important factor in the sovereign positioning of the Turkic-speaking republics of Central Asia. At the same time, it has ceased to act as an instrument of Turkish expansion and today represents a new phenomenon — “collective pan-Turkism”, which testifies to the common interest and solidarity aspirations of its participants. Russia, China and other non-regional actors will have to reckon with this circumstance in the future.