Great Power Politics in Greater Eurasia: Regional Alliances, Institutions, Projects, and Conflicts, Rahman Dağ and Özgür Tüfekçi, Editör, Lexington Books, Lanham (MD), USA , London, ss.157-180, 2022
Gülşen Aydın’s chapter touches upon Turkey’s foreign policy towards Central Asia, where ethnically Turkish states were established after the Soviets’ dismantlement. Since
the 1990s, Turkey sought to get in touch with them and so to distance the
Russian threats from its own borders. Mostly concluded that in the 1990s,
Turkey could not achieve what it targeted, not raise ambitions to re-involve in
Central Asian politics. As a rising regional power, Turkey encounters Russia,
China, Iran, and partly India over the natural resources in the region, having
the advantage of the common ethnic origin. Lacking material power to financially substantiate its foreign policy, it seems that Turkey has been employing
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Introduction 13
soft-power instruments such as cultural, educational, and partly commercial
relations. Turkey is also eager to host transnational energy routes from Central Asia to Europe, which Russia potentially agrees with it. In short, Central
Asia is most likely to be another target field for regional and international
great power politics.