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Ankara hopes it can break Russian and Chinese dominance in Central Asia.
Written by Paul Antonopoulos, independent geopolitical analyst
A provocative map of the Turkic-speaking world was given to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last week by his coalition partner and leader of the Far-Right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli. The map presented by Bahçeli and enthusiastically accepted by Erdoğan includes not only Turkey, but also large areas of southern Russia and eastern Siberia, parts of Greece and other areas of the Balkans, Central Asia, China’s Xinjiang province, Mongolia and Iran – a depiction of a so-called “Greater Turan”.
It is noted that the map was given to Erdoğan only a few days after the eighth summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, more commonly known as the Turkic Council, was held. The Istanbul-held summit was attended by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan’s president and Hungary’s prime minister attended as observers. At the summit, Erdoğan strongly advocated for pan-Turkic unity by calling on other member states to officially recognize the illegal but de facto “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” and apply pressure for a transportation corridor to cut through Armenian territory to connect Turkey with Azerbaijan and Central Asia.
In this particular summit, with the Turkish lira crashing to new lows against the US dollar every few days and inflation now out of control, pan-Turkist and Turkic nationalist rhetoric was utilized in an attempt to distract Turkish citizens with grandeur illusions of territorial expansionism based on the false mythology of common Turkic heritage and culture.
The uncomfortable truth is that even claims of common heritage and ancestry among the pan-Turkic World is false. Take for example Mustapha Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic of Turkey. He himself was an Islamified Albanian Jew that strongly adopted a Turkish identity after being expelled from his homeland of Macedonia following the First Balkan War (1912-13) and created a “Turkey for the Turks” after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
A “Turkey for the Turks” meant the forced Turkification and Islamification of all citizens regardless if they were Kurdish, Greek, Armenian or any other ethnicity. The by-product of this forced Turkification is felt today. Consider Bahçeli, the Far-Right Turkish ultranationalist that denies the Armenian Genocide despite himself being a Turkified Armenian. In another example, Erdoğan has ancestry from one of the few remaining villages in rural Turkey where Greek is still the mother tongue despite the 1913-1923 genocide and all residents today identifying as Turkish Muslims. Erdoğan still calls his ancestral village by its former Greek name of Potamya (River Village) instead of the Turkish name Güneysu. Erdoğan even lamented in an interview how his father questioned his Turkishness to his grandfather, with his grandfather responding “when we die and go to heaven, they will ask us what God you believe, who your prophet is and what your religion is. They will not ask us of our ethnic origins.”
Atatürk feared that Anatolia would be carved up by Greece, Armenia, the Kurds and the Western Powers, but consolidated unity amongst the millions of Muslims in the region by instilling a common Turkish identity and either exterminating Christians or forcing Turkification and Islamification on survivors, usually women and children. The Turkic warlords that invaded Anatolia during the Medieval period and later became the Ottomans, were a male warrior elite that numbered only in their tens of thousands but ruled over millions of subjects, many who through force or by their own choice adopted Islam and eventually the Turkish language. None-the-less, the modern Republic of Turkey was built on the foundations of ultra-nationalist fever, something that continues 98 years later and is becoming increasingly hyper as Turkey’s economy plummets, along with Erdoğan’s popularity.
The heartland of the Turkic-world in Central Asia and Siberia is not as consumed by ultra-nationalist tendencies because of the secularizing and moderating effect of Russian and Soviet rule. However, Ankara is working extremely hard to shape its regional order by attempting to coerce Central Asian states into hyper-nationalism by claiming a supposed shared culture and ancestry, rather than just a simple linguistic connection that is the result of colonialism that is no different to why several African and Latin American countries have Spanish, French, English and Portuguese as official languages today.
A Turkish bureaucrat familiar with the Turkic Council told Al-Monitor that the bloc “emerged on the basis of common culture and the prospect of a common future. By institutionalizing the Turkic Council, the Turkic states could attain the potential to realize common interests,” which he says, among other things, includes “political cohesion.” It is clear that Ankara has ambitions for a kind of Turkey stretching from the Great Wall of China to the Adriatic Sea.
Turkey believed that after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 it could easily dominate Central Asia culturally, economically and politically. Turkey finds it difficult though to break Russian and even Chinese influence in the region. For this reason, Ankara played a major role in the conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, and even once had hostile relations with China over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the home of the Turkic Uighur people. Turkey believes that by engaging in this ultra-nationalistic way, it can break Russian and Chinese influence in Central Asia and allow it to emerge as the preeminent power of the region.
It remains to be seen whether Central Asian states will go down the path of Ankara-sponsored ultra-nationalism or just view the Turkic Council as a linguistic bloc that has economic and cultural benefits.
Erdog sensed that Putin is a weak poodle so he can pretty much push Russia around. Putin is after all a businessman first and foremost, he would gladly sell out all of Russia for for the right price, and while Erdogan can’t quite buy all of it he could buy parts… If Russia wasn’t lead by a Jewish businessman it would have sent it’s new Armata tanks to the Idlib frontline to kick out Al Qaeda and turkoids. But instead they are focused on business with their turkish, american and israeli “partners”.
The funny thing is that Erdogan is very disliked in Turkey, the only thing Erdog has going for him is pushing weak Russia around to make him look tough and impress the population. If Russia was to turn around and smack him across the face he would be made a fool of and probably overthrown. But instead Russia is letting NATO entrench itself in Ukraine and Syria.
NATO is dysfunctional.
Daesh has the same mentality with you.
By March the Turkish economy will be in a hyper-inflationary collapse and Turkey will be bringing all its troops home from Syria or they will desert as they will not be paid. By the end of the week maybe in a couple of days what ever pay they get will be worthless like in Weimar Germany.
That or they fold to their “master” again and will be saved. This is the US punishing Turkey for going independent. Erdo just isn’t that smart after all.
Also in addition to what the article says, most of southern central Asia are inhabited by Iranic people who are still either fully or partially Iranic by blood, millions of them still speak Persian at home. These regions have been part of Iran for thousands of years before the Turko-Mongol invasions and genocides that occured after the 13th century. Furthermore the word “Turan” is also of Iranic origin and was the name of the Iranic tribes that inhabited the regions north of Iranian territory in central Asia. The actual Turanians later migrated west toward eastern Europe and some of their descendants are still alive in the north Caucasus (The Ossetians).
Pan-Turkism was an Anglo-Zionist invention created when the British empire infiltrated and took over the dying Ottoman empire. All of its main “founding fathers” and thought leaders were of Jewish and European background. It was created (and still used today) as a geopolitical tool of the west against Russia, China, and Iran.
Turkey is just a NATO& Zionist tool to desestabilize Russia, China and Iran..we have seen how Israel is infiltrating in Azerbajan close to Iran while Turks do the same in Caucasus and central Asia close to China…Turkey has the same mandate as Poland and Baltic countries have in destabilizing Belarus and previously Ukraine.
This is half truth actually.
Elaborate please.
NATO is dysfunctional and Zionists are against Turkey now.
Yes, but Turkey doesn’t clash with Iran at all. Look at what Cavusoglu has said in Tehran.
But Iran is afraid of Israel right?
No wrong Israel is afraid to Iran
Both are afraid of each other.
Turkey wants to be part of the big boys club. They try to act on their own, but they still depend on good relations to all sides. Their economy and their currency are taking a huge punch right now as they tried to play out the west, especially the US. Its their punishment. Eventually they will fold or go down a self destructive path. Just look how much more the US is indebted. But they are still ok. Turkey is not a big player and did move too soon to become independent. Not that they have no right to do so. But Erdogan did not think that all through.
They will create a new axis. They just want to defeat Assad and then the axis will open.
Defeat Assad? What for? Russia is assisting the Syrian people and their government. Turkey wants to be at the table and have a vote on that. They failed as they are unwilling to stabilize the country like Russia does and now they have no vote on anything anymore. They are a obstacle and soon gone when their Lira and their economy will collapse even further. Turkey will not create anything. They have almost no friends anymore as they pissed of anyone. Good luck with that “Axis”. They will soon suck up to their master to save their Lira.
I mean I am against this axis. I say what will happen. If you see, Turkish regime, Afghan regime, some Iraqis (Sadr, Maliki) dislike Assad. Iranians and Pakis are ok but they are friends with Turkey, especially Pakistan. So they will depose Assad and make Damascus ruled by MB.
Assad couldn’t be ousted by the west and won’t be ousted by anyone else. Regime change is not on the table for anyone. People in Turkey are going to the streets now protesting the financial policies that made their currency fall the recent days. The US is torn apart in domestic issues. It is only Israel that is still actively engaged military in Syria. Pakistan was never a part of that and won’t be. In my opinion Erdogan is likely next to go. He f**ed up his economy and his country currency. Foreign companies are halting sells in Turkey now. People are abandoning the Lira. Buying stuff and exchanging mostly for US dollars. It is on the news now. He is now loosing his support with the people. He won’t survive the next coup.
Delusional trolls at its finest. Same category as Global UK, or U.S. hegemony. Im sure there will be decent Disney movies about it…
I think it’s more about exposing Erdogan’s strategy. He really is a Tryannical/Colonialist. W.e the best description is.
Everyone has dreams and wishes :-) Look at Obama. He was practically praised as the new messiahs. What did he left behind?
Turkey’s currency is collapsing very badly now an going into hyperinflation soon. Like I said before here, they are finished. Soon the economy will collapse too as people will abandon the Lira. I think Erdo will force his people to take it anyway and put them into great poverty. Like they said, they want to fight high prices, but that is not something they can do. It is not up to them. Whatever Erdo says is meaningless as his country doesn’t have a healthy economy and a working currency. He of course will never admit to that. What a shame.
HA! the Veil is lifted. Now we see the reason for that “independent” stray footstep from NATO. Turkey has it’s OWN plans. They will try to tap into the turks geographical heritage to justify their new “police/protector of turks”. And meanwhile, it seems this is going to be exploited by the West. I can see them using the Kurds/Turks within and nearby Iran, to cause a breakout within Iran. That will help tumble the West’s Agenda to goto War with Iran. Isreal Seem’s Like its already preparing for this. Just an observation. NO bias.
Iran has no such agenda in my opinion. They only oppose any kind of meddling in other countries businesses like regime change, sanctions, etc. for not bowing to western agenda. Same as Russia or China oppose those too. Israel they ignore mostly but are also prepared for the worst case scenario here. They simply balance out any military imbalance by their own means. Turkey is entirely run by Erdogan and his Muppet show. He did a lot to secure his reign for decades. He has complex psychosis. One of them is his inferiority complex. He could do something for his people to have that satisfied, but he chooses to only do something great for himself. He goes away, they might have a chance to develop into a “normal” country again.
So this is why my comment on Nakhchivan was superseded last week?
Some open forum!