“Not saying it will work like the old Ottoman Empire, but it will be more of a coalition.”
1. Won’t happen. Culture is stronger than religion or politics and the cultures of the Central Asian republics is not that of Turkey and even more so not that of Erdogan.
2. They have no need or desire to be part of a “coalition” that would intentionally pit them against Russia, China, Iran, India or anyone else. They - their people - have seen too many wars brought into their lands by others, and they won’t become part of that mistake again. If anything develops it will be their own coaltion in a manner telling all major powers to not try to pit them against anyone outisde their area. Erodogan would fail trying to recruit them into “his wing”.
Fascinating to read. You see, there were indeed pan-Turkic aspirations among some Turkish intellectuals for a certain period.
Strangely, the idea of pan-Turkism had been invented in Hungary, from where it went to Turkey, based on certain grammatical similarities between the Turkic languages and the Finno- Ugric ones.
The idea of pan-Turkism did indeed influence some of the Young Turks, if I remember correctly.
Still, I suppose that the great days of pan-Turkic ideas are gone now. Alparslan Türkes, the last notable Turkish politician who supported those ideas for a while, has been dead now for 27 years…
Islamism is what is the „latest fashion“ nowadays.
Who’s being “old school” here?
Muslims are looking for a leader who can unite them. Iran can’t do it. Arabs can’t do it. But Turkey can. They won’t care what happened hundreds of years ago, they just see the opportunity to dominate the world. Eventually Shias and Shiites will get together.