MILITARY-POLITICAL ASPECTS OF COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND THE CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRIES: OVERALL DYNAMICS OF DEVELOPMENT
Abstract
The geopolitical changes going on in the world in the aftermath of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union have prompted Turkey to take a fresh look at its foreign policy, as well as at several issues relating to the country’s security and defense. The approach of Turkey’s leaders to the country’s national security strategy and policy has widened its horizons to encompass the place these two elements occupy in the overall development of Turkey’s so-called alternative foreign policy. Since the very beginning of the 1990s, the Caucasus and the Central Asian region (CA) have become a new alternative vector in Turkey’s foreign policy. Given its ethno-linguistic and cultural communality with the Turkic speaking nations that populate the region, Turkey began employing a new political strategy, trying to assume the role of leader there. This was a unique opportunity for it to raise its status as a regional power.
In this article, we will attempt to shed some light on the special features of the development of Turkey’s military-political cooperation with the newly independent states of Central Asia.
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