A Comparative Analysis of the Role of Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the Growth of Takfiri Extremism in Central Asia after 1991

This article intends to examine the role of the Republic of Turkey with secular ideology and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with Wahhabi ideology in the production and intensification of Takfiri extremism in Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the post-1991.

The research method of the present article is descriptive-analytical and the study of the subject is comparative in the framework of the theory of "security complex" of Bari Bouzan. The necessary information has been collected using the library method and by referring to books, articles, and domestic and foreign publications.

The findings show that the competitive polarity of Turkey and Saudi Arabia has manifested itself in different ways in Central Asia. The Turks have promoted Gulenism within the framework of Pan-Turkism, and the Saudis have spread Wahhabi ideology in the region within the framework of public diplomacy.

Central Asia, as a security complex after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been exposed to the competition of major regional powers, and these powers have been effective in various ways in securing the region. Turkey and Saudi Arabia, as two major poles of the Islamic world, have provoked the fault lines of fundamentalism in this region and have seen their interests in fueling extremism. The ideological competition between the two countries has made a difference in role, level, purpose, strategy and fruit. Although the Turks and Saudis have acted differently, their work has been similar in intensifying Takfiri extremism in Central Asia.