Turkey, Pan-Turkism and Central Asia

This research seeks to study the impact of Pan-Turkist ideology on Central Asia. The collapse of the Soviet Union and independence of the Central Asian and Caucasian states once again revitalized hopes among the Pan-Turkist theoreticians and strategists who were hopeless about the implementation of their project of establishing a Turkic empire in the southern parts of the Soviet Union. Considering the Pan-Turkist ideals in Turkey's foreign policy and the 15-year long efforts by the country's politicians and intellectuals in promoting the Pan-Turkist project of alliance among Central Asian republics, this article addresses these efforts and their effects on Central Asia and finally regional countrie's reaction to the Pan-Turkist ideals. The main hypothesis of the research includes that unlike original ideas, Pan-Turkism has not progressed so much in its political aspects, which made Turkish politicians hesitant about it.