Turkey’s policy in Central Asia: results and prospects

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union with the immediate appearance on the world map of five independent republics in Central Asia, the Turkish government, believing in its own political calling to unite the Turkic-speaking peoples under its auspices, launched extensive activities to plant its influence in this region. Convinced of the ineffectiveness of too persistent political patronage over the Central Asian republics, the Republic of Turkey, which claims to be the standard-bearer of pan-Turkic ideology and political Islam, has built an influential network of educational institutions and international organizations representing the arsenal of its “soft power” and designed to turn Turkey into a reference point for the development of the Central Asian states.