Turkey seeks Central Asia inroads with Russia distracted

Turkey will lead a summit of Central Asian countries on Friday (11 November), aiming to strengthen economic ties with the region’s resource-rich ex-Soviet states while Moscow is distracted by the war in Ukraine.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will preside over the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) summit in Uzbekistan’s historic city of Samarkand.

Erdogan has for several years been pushing for closer cultural, linguistic and religious ties with several ex-Soviet countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February spooked Moscow’s neighbours in Central Asia and spurred Kazakhstan — geographically the region’s largest country — and Uzbekistan, the most populous, to look for alliances elsewhere: both with China and also Europe.

In a sign of Ankara’s determination to gain a foothold here while Moscow focuses on Ukraine, this is Erdogan’s third trip to the region in less than two months.

The OTS group includes Azerbaijan — a former Soviet republic with a Turkic language located in the Caucasus region bordering Turkey — as well as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia.

Turkmenistan, also in Central Asia, and EU member state Hungary are observer members of the group.

The group last year dropped its former name, the Turkic Council, in favour of the Organisation of Turkic States.

The group could expand further if isolated Turkmenistan becomes a fully-fledged member — an expansion announced by Turkey’s foreign ministry but not confirmed by Ashgabat.

If Turkmenistan does join, the union set up in 2009 will incorporate all the Central Asian countries that speak languages in the Turkic group.

“This community of Turkic states is beginning to take shape,” Bayram Balci, who teaches political science at France’s Sciences Po, told AFP.

I think the biggest beneficiary of war in Ukraine is Turkey. Russia's influence in Central Asia is shrinking, creating a power vacuum of sorts, creating an opening for Turkey. The Organisation of Turkic States could develop into Pan-Turkic Union (a kind of Turkic version of EU+Nato.) It could be big enough to create headaches for three players: Russia, Iran, and China. They could have less room for geopolitical maneuver. Russia's activity in Europe and China's in the East and South East Asia could be restrained by the existence of Turkic power behind their back.

What is interesting is that genetically only the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz are more than 50% genetically Turkic i.e. North-East Asian

The "Turks" are only about 5% to 15% (increasing west to east) Turkic and the rest are more related to Greeks, Syriacs, Iranians and Armenians

The Uzbeks and to a lower extent Turkmen are mostly Iranian as are the Azeris

I see this is a recent posting of an artice almost 2 weeks old. Is there any newer information about developments in this area?

I noticed Tajikistan was NOT mentioned in the article. Is that because the Tajiks are not a Turkic language group? I believe in Afghanistan the fighters in the Panjshir Valley who were the last to fall to the current Taliban government were mostly Tajik. I also enjoyed the recent info about the Tajikistan dictator’s outspoken tirade at Putin at a recent meeting in his country, much to Putin’s embarrasment. See link below. Be patient it has a number of pictures including an unhappy Putin, so is a bit slow to paint.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11318437/Now-Putin-listen-lectures-President-TAJIKISTAN-berates-Russian-leader.html

I also suspect some of these Turkic countries are not too happy with China’s Belt and Road initiative. Is that just a plan to make it easier to extract and transport their resources back to China without providing any significant development? That was one of the things the Tajik dictator was raving about regarding Russian behavior during Putin’s visit.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.