Central Asian Policy of Turkey in the Post-Soviet Era: From Rhetoric to Rationality
Central Asian Policy of Turkey in the Post-Soviet Era: From Rhetoric to Rationality

Summary/Abstract: Turkey started to rebuild its relations with the Turkic states of the Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Turkish foreign policy regarding the Central Asia was mostly relying on a Pan-Turkism rhetoric and pragmatic basis at the beginning of the 1990s, yet it could only evolve into a rational one at the start of the new millennium thanks to increased commercial and economic relations paying great attention to the energy issue with the Central Asian countries. While assuming a ‘model state’ role for the kin states and competing with the Russian Federation and its near abroad policy, Turkey managed to become a strategic partner with Russia to cooperate in energy sector together with the Central Asian countries that have rich natural energy resources. This study aims to offer a descriptive approach to the Central Asian Policy of Turkey in the Post-Soviet Era and to demonstrate how it evolved from rhetoric to rationality. This study enjoys the historical analysis to assert this change in Turkish foreign policy within the region and consists of two main sections: one is dealing with the pragmatic policies formed on a rhetoric aiming a Turkish Union right after the collapse of the USSR and the other one is discussing the change of these policies in favor of rational ones.

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