Turkey and the Turkic World in the Light of Today's Eco-Political Developments

Introduction

The aim of this paper is first to analyze the terms Turk, Turkey, Turkestan and the Turkic World through three political economy historical transformations; then to understand the "Turkic World" by referring to the struggle for dominance in the ancient world along the trade routes (Silk Road). 

It is essential to know the cultural continuity and philosophical foundations of Turkestan-Turkey in order to analyze the constant instability in today's energy production and supply centers and the possibility of success of the efforts to eliminate them (belt-road), Turkey's geo-political, geo-strategic and logistical position and its effectiveness in the Turkish World. While reading the history of thought chronologically within Hitit University, we systematically examine the historical and philosophical codes of this process in the context of the Turkistan/Atayurt-Turkey-Anayurt continuity. 

Here, we will touch upon the connection between Turkey and Turkestan geography in the light of today's economic-political developments: With the construction of Marmaray, a train departing from China, whose total exports are 2.5 trillion dollars and imports are 2.1 trillion dollars, will be able to reach the British capital London without interruption. The importance of Turkey in Eurasian political economy becomes clearer when we consider the new Edirne-Kars railway, as well as the ports of Iskenderun, Mersin, Çandarlı, Bandarli, Bandirma and Samsun, which will support the "middle corridor", the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is important for energy supply and transportation of trade goods. 

It seems rational that the Chinese, Russian, Persian (Sassanid) and British minds, which have been active in the ancient world for centuries, and the Turkish minds, which have been active in the Indian geography for two centuries, should act jointly and jointly produce projects on the main lines of the new silk road. In addition to the fact that there is no other country with such a developed and comprehensive production network as Turkey in the geography extending from the east of Germany, the motor country of the EU, to China, the fact that Turkey is at the center of the triangle connecting Eastern Europe, North Africa and Inner Asia (Turkestan) increases the importance of our country in terms of political economy.  

Apart from whether Germany, the motor power of the EU, has the ability to act against the will of the US, Britain's departure from the union, China's economic power, the reemergence of the three lines of the historical Silk Road as an energy supply and production center, and China-US tensions are factors that directly affect the Turkish World.

Three Economic-Political Events Determining the Current Century

The first of these was the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. The distinction between the Eastern and Western blocs was replaced by a new world order under the control of the United States of America (and the United States of Europe).

Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan in the region we call West Turkestan gained their de facto independence, albeit relatively. But 40 separate Turkic communities remain in Russia. Of the 21 autonomous republics, 7 - Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Chuvashia, Saha (Yakutia), Tuva, Khakassia and Altai - are Turkic, accounting for 8.7% of Russia's population. 

The second eco-political event was the September 11, 2001 airplane attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US military. After these attacks, the US began interventions in energy production and supply centers under the name of the New World Order. In October 2001, the US intervened in Afghanistan under the pretext of preventing nuclear proliferation, which was directly aimed at accessing energy resources in West and South Turkestan and preventing Russia and China from gaining power.  In March 2003, it launched operations against Iraq and then against the Persian Gulf, one of the most important energy transportation hubs today.

The third event was the so-called Arab Spring, which started in 2010 and which I experienced directly as a faculty member at the Turkology Department of Sanaa University in Yemen. The regional and social movements that emerged from the Arab peoples' demands for democracy, freedom and human rights are, in my opinion, an advanced stage of the process that started in 1991 and gained momentum in 2001. 

In this context, we can say that the attack on the twin towers in the USA was actually the beginning of a new century or, implicitly, the beginning of World War III. A situation of "permanent instability" was created in the Arab world, starting from Syria, Iraq and Yemen (once the southern line of the "Silk Road") to Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

New operations were organized against these regions. It was said that democracy would be brought to the patrimonial/patriarchal countries of the Arab world, but the regions became even more unstable and internal conflicts were triggered. Proxy wars began with Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Boko-Haram and ISIS/Daesh, which have become more effective today. As of 1992, the legitimization of these policies with the thesis of the clash of civilizations was transformed into an intra-civilizational clash, which was launched under the name of the Arab Spring in 2010. Now, proxy wars have become widespread with the policy of breaking Muslims against Muslims through sectarian distinctions such as Shiite-Salafi or Shiite-Sunni. 

Atatürk's Political Genius and the Turkish World

In 1933, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's statement on how the spiritual/cultural bridges between Anatolian Turkism and the Turkic world should be built will shed light on the present day. Because he suggested being prepared for the changing world balances in case one day the USSR might disintegrate like the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. He states that we should be ready to protect our brothers and sisters whose language is one and whose essence is one under the rule of the USSR. He says that this preparation will be to "keep their spiritual bridges intact" as follows: "Language is a bridge, faith is a bridge. We must go back to our roots and unite within our history, which has been divided by events. We cannot wait for them, the foreign Turks, to get closer to us, we need to get closer to them."

To understand the significance of this far-sightedness, one should recall President Clinton's statement in 1997 that "the strategic goals of the United States in the 21st century are to prevent the establishment of a strategic bloc in the Eurasian region". After this brief background, let us dwell on the terms Turk, Turkey and the Turkic World. 

Turkish and Turkish Terms

Turks are a nation that has continuously established states in Central Asia (Atayurt-Turkistan) and Asia Minor (Anatolia-Turkey). Following the main routes of the historical Silk Road, they carried out migration movements that we examine as socialization processes.  Various Turkish communities, who made the lands they conquered their homeland, established states, sometimes bearing the name of Turk and sometimes another special name.

The original meaning of the word "Turk" is understood from an old Turkish document. The word "Turk" as a genus noun means "strong-strong" in the adjectival form of "power-force" and was first used in the Persian texts of the V century (420 A.D.) in the meaning of "Turanian". In a Byzantine record of the VI century (515 AD), it is known to be used as "Turk-Hun" (mighty Hun). It was also mentioned in Chinese annals, Byzantine sources and an Arabic divan in this period.  But officially we first see the Gok-Turk State. Later, it became the common name of other Turks affiliated to the first empire, known by their own special names. In time, it became the "national name" for all communities belonging to the Turkish lineage.

With the spread of Turkish communities, there were changes in the borders of the geographical regions indicated by the word 'Turkey', and in the IX.-X. centuries, the area from the Itil (Volga) river to Central Europe was given this name. We know that Khazars lived in the region called "Eastern Turkey" and Hungarians lived in the region called "Western Turkey", and when the "Turkish state" was established in Egypt in the XIII century, Egypt and Syria were also called "Turkey". Therefore, we can say that the term "Turkey" has emerged as a conceptualization that expresses the whole Turkish World. 

When we see that the term 'Turkey' as a geographical name was first encountered in Byzantine sources and that the Byzantines called Central Asia Turkey in the VIth century, we can see how accurate the founding will of the Turkish Republic was. 

Silk Road Routes and the Turkic World

The Turkic tribes dominated the Silk Road from China to the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Sea and had an impact on the cultures and civilizations of the East and West. In history, when we remember the Hun empire, which advanced from the Balkans and the plains of Northern Europe to the interior of Europe, even to the English Channel and the southern part of today's Sweden, their influence on Europe's ethnic, political, social, military and artistic fields also emerges. 

When we look at the migration routes of the Turks, we can see this clearly. They spread around the world in three branches. The Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Uzbek tribes, which we can call the first branch, remained in East Turkistan.  The second branch, the Nine-Tatar, Thirty Tatar, Avar, Kipchak, Bulgarians, which Kashgarli Mahmud, one of the Turkic tribes coming out of Central Asia, says in Divanu Lugati't-Türk that they were Bashkurd and their neighbors, headed towards the North of the Black Sea and Eastern Europe. 

In this context, we know that in the 576s the Root-Gök Turks came as far as Khazar-Aral and Crimea, threatened the Eastern Romans, and another Turkic tribe, the Avars, came into contact with Justin I (565-578). It should not be forgotten that the Avars, who lived a golden age under Bayan Kagan, conquered the old Turkic-Hun homelands, became the true heir of Ata Illig (Attila), and that Byzantium fought the Persians with their support.  It should also be remembered that the Khazars were the first Turkic tribe and kaganate that played a major role in the history of Eastern Europe and established an orderly state, providing political stability in the Caucasus, north of the Black Sea, in the area extending from the Itil, Özi, Cholma (Kama) and Kiyev between the 7th-10th centuries.

Istemi Kagan, who continued his military campaign in the west and extended his borders to the Caspian Sea, tried the southern route when he saw that there would be problems in the sale of silk as well as other minerals, but upon the problems seen here, he decided to fight against the Sassanids and wanted to make an agreement with Byzantium for this purpose. On the advice of the merchant Sogdians, who knew that the Sassanids and Byzantium were not on good terms, he decided to send a delegation for a Byzantine-Gök Turk alliance. The reason for reminding these is that today's policies should be formulated based on the attitude of the Turks in the face of the Persian-Sassanid economy-centered conflict with Byzantium.   

The third branch of the Turks going from East to West are the Oghuzs-Turkmen. Following their ancestor's command "O Oghuz, you want to march on Urum-Rome", they continuously moved westward and established the Karakoyunlu, Akkoyunlu, (Kınık tribe) Great Seljuks, Turkish Seljuks, (Kayı tribe) Ottomans and the Republic of Turkey. It was this branch that established the Turkish states and dynasties in Iran (Safavids, Avars, Qajars), the Azerbaijan Khanates, and finally the Republics of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. 

The tribes that separated from these three branches and formed secondary branches were dominant in India, Egypt, China and Mongolia for a while. The Oghuzs, who took part in the Ghaznavid state in Khorasan, which was excellent in terms of its agricultural, military and administrative organization, reached the borders of the Byzantine Empire in a short time with the establishment of the Seljuk state and left deep traces on the history, culture and science life of the ancient world. 

In purely geographical terms, the Turkic world is the region stretching from the interior of Eurasia, from the isthmus extending from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, eastward 4500 km to the Yenisei and from the North Pole to Turkey in the south. The role that the one who dominates the heartland of the ancient world will play in world eco-politics should be considered within this framework. 

Political Economy Struggles on the Silk Road in History

The Silk Road is a system of caravan routes stretching from China to the Mediterranean, linking Asia and Europe commercially and economically for centuries, giving rise to the concept of Eurasia. The partial emergence of the Silk Road dates back to the Bronze Age (3000-2000 BC). The Great Silk Road, which brought the Sakas and the Chinese together commercially, appears in the History of Rome written by Ammianus Marcellinus (322-400) in the IV century AD.

After briefly mentioning the Byzantine-Sassanid and Gok Turkic states' struggle in the context of migration movements through the Silk Road routes, it is possible to see the same situation if we look at the relatively later period. Because with the capture of Baghdad in 1258, the routes of trade routes were reorganized and the importance of the city of Tabriz increased. 

At this point, it should be remembered that the Mongols attached great importance to trade due to the tamga tax, which they saw as an important source of income, and established the "Common Organization" to ensure the security of trade routes and merchants and to speed up the flow. This organization, which the Mongols adopted from the Uighurs, was a kind of trading company and encouraged large-scale and international trade by obtaining low-interest loans from the state treasury. As a result of this, i.e. because it was exempt from many obligations and taxes, trade came under a kind of state control. 

In the process of the struggle for dominance over trade routes, the tensions between the two Mongol-Turkic sister states, namely Ilkhan-Khulagû and the Golden Horde, can be analyzed in detail. The Ilkhanids tried to claim the nomadic trade route that came from Khorasan and connected the East to the Far East. In 1273 Alagha Khan captured Bukhara; in 1295 Chagatai Khan captured Iran.  For the Syria region, which was the northern part of the Eastern Mediterranean trade route, a confrontation with the Mamlūk State (Egypt) took place. In other words, the Ilkhanids tried to intervene in the trade system of the Eastern Mediterranean trade route connecting east to west. The Mamluk State, which reinforced its Turkish identity with Sultan Baybars, confronted the Ilkhanids in the Eastern Mediterranean trade struggle.   

When the Mamluk State took control of Syria and Iraq, the Ilkhanids lost their influence on the Eastern Mediterranean trade route and prioritized reaching Tabriz-Trabzon (Byzantium) and Constantinople. In order to understand the importance of this route, it is necessary to remember the defeat of the Karakoyunlu state, whose capital was Diyarbakır, by Uzun Hasan (1453-1478), the leader of the Akkoyunlu State, at the end of the 15th century. His close relations with the Italians, especially the Venetians, and the fact that Uzun Hasan was the son-in-law of the last emperor of Trabzon, David Megas Komninos, also show the political importance of marriage. With David's military help, Uzun Hasan expanded his territory, eliminated the Karakoyunlu State and moved the capital from Diyarbakır to Tabriz (1467).  However, neither the Ilkhanids nor the Akkoyunlu State were able to dominate the southern part of the Eastern Mediterranean trade route.  

The Ottoman-Mamlūkid political conflict, both of which had a Sunnite vision of Islam, was based on capturing the economic value of this region.  In this context, the political struggle between the Sunni Karakoyunlu State and the Shiite Akkoyunlu State was based on the sharing of economic value. When we look at the defeat of the Karakoyunlu and the problems they took refuge in the Ottoman state and the problems they caused, it will be seen more clearly that religious/sectarian visions were a tool in the eco-political struggle. 

Conclusion

In order to see the political economy in Eurasia today and the importance of the position of the Turkic world, it is necessary to pay attention to the lines of the historical Silk Road: Tunghuang, Turfan, Kucha, Andijan, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Bukhara, Khiva, Yenikent, across the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea and upwards, and then to Trabzon. The other line reached Antioch via Tung Huang, Çerçen, Khotan, Yarkent, Balkh, Merv, Nisabur, Rey, Tabriz and Trabzon, Rey.  

If we add the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, the eco-political importance of Turkey and the Turkic world becomes clearer if we say that the Silk Road starts from the shores of Asia Minor, that is, Syria, crosses the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, crosses the Iranian lands, passes through Merv, then Bukhara, Samarkand, Urartepe (Ursusana), Fargane and reaches Kashgar. For this reason, projects that will reunite Turkic communities and states within the framework of a higher culture and civilization should be developed urgently. (Mevlüt Uyanık, "Turkey and the Turkic World in the Light of Today's Eco-Political Developments", Tesam, 2989-0498; (1/7),2023:34-39