Pan-Turkic rhetoric continues to play up Turkey’s role in Central Asia, overlooking the tangible elements that actually underpin relations.
May 3, 2016
By Allen Park
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Ashgabat alongside top officials from several former Soviet republics last December to help Turkmenistan mark the 20th anniversary of its UN-recognized neutral status. Neither the timing nor the theme could have been more awkward: it was only two weeks earlier that Turkish forces shot down a Russian plane on the Turkey-Syria border. The sharp rhetoric exchanged by the leaders of Turkey and Russia not only sparked fears of escalation, but also …read more
Source: Center on Global Interests
