In Central Asia, Erdogan Urges Stronger Ties With ‘Turkic’ States

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pushed Wednesday for stronger ties with ex-Soviet Turkic states at a summit in Central Asia, as Ankara vies with Russia and China for influence in the region.

Erdogan was attending a meeting in Bishkek of the Organization of Turkic States, a Turkish-led initiative to promote its culture and ties with former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

“We are going to take our Organization of Turkic States much further,” Erdogan told leaders, calling the group an “exemplary platform”.

The OTS member and observer countries are Turkey and ex-Soviet Central Asian countries Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, as well as the Caucasus country of Azerbaijan and the breakaway Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, recognised only by Ankara.

Hungary, Turkey’s fellow NATO member, with whom it is seeking deeper ties, is also an observer country due to ancient links to the region, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban was at the summit.

In the last few years, Turkey has built stronger ties with these countries, benefitting from Russia’s relative weakness and its focus on the war in Ukraine.

Ankara emphasises its cultural links with the region, speaking similar languages and also linked by Islam. It has recently renamed Central Asia “Turkestan” in school textbooks.

Erdogan also welcomed a recent decision by the OTS to agree a common alphabet based on the Latin one.

Some OTS member states still use the Cyrillic alphabet, a relic of their Soviet past.

“Agreeing on the shared Turkic alphabet project is a historic step,” Erdogan said.

Turkey is still a relatively minor player in Central Asia, which has longstanding military, political and economic ties to Moscow, and where China has a growing influence.

Ahead of the summit, Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry lamented a lack of “real progress” in building the Turkic alliance, despite the “development of commercial links” between member countries.

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