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Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
Recep Tayyip Gürler 1
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power is that has been recently in the agenda of Turkey’s Foreign Policy. Later, this study examines the Turkish
Foreign Policy to the Central Asian countries soon after the Cold War era as based on the soft power theory
which was propounded by Joseph Nye in 1990s and developed by him 2000s. Examining Justice and
'HYHORSPHQW 3DUW\ $GDOHW YH .DONÕQPD 3DUWLVL SHULRG WKH FRncept of soft power is used very often while
defining foreign policy towards the Middle East. However, the current paper claims that this situation is not new
for Turkey and soft power policies were also used at the beginning of 1990s towards the Central Asian countries
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Keywords: soft power, Turkish Foreign Policy, Central Asia, Soviet Union.
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Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
Introduction
The relations among states were explained with the concept of hard power until the
1990s. During the Cold War, there was an armament race between Western and Eastern
blocks. Just that the reason is sufficient to explain the international relations with hard power.
With the end of the Cold War, the use of hard power was begun to be questioned.
In our age, hard power (military force) has become increasingly difficult to use and the use of
soft power (economic cooperation, diplomacy etc.) seems more logical. In an anarchical
international environment identified with the hard power, military capabilities of the states
have not lost its importance. Soft power does QRWFRPSOHWHO\LJQRUHWKHKDUGSRZHU Yeşiltaş
and Balcı Regarding this, soft power supports hard power and allows the use of
hard power when required.
The concept of soft power was first introduced by Joseph Nye in 1990s (Nye, 1990).
For Nye (2004: 5), soft power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to reach the
outcomes you want by attracting and co-opting them rather than coercing. He expresses that
there is no need for using sticks and carrots to attract the other country. Soft power prefers
cooperation and interdependence instead of the use of force against a state. The use of money
is also another means of persuasion.
The disintegration of the former Soviet Union strongly affected Turkey. The
emergence of the new Turkic republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus after the collapse of
the former Soviet Union provided Turkey with another important opportunity to expand its
regional influence through an activist foreign policy. Turkey adopted some approaches in its
regional policy towards Central Asia and the Caucasus. According to Hakan Fidan (2010:
109), these policies were; “helping to consolidate the independencies of the Turkic Republics;
establishing an institutionalized platform between the Turkic Republics and Turkey;
improving cultural and linguistic affinities and commonalities with those states; building a
bridge between the world markets and Central Asia and the Caucasus for the economy and
energy sources; and intermediating conflicts and contributing to the solution of problems by
using peaceful dialogue.” As it is seen, Turkish policymakers chose soft power as a means of
improving the relations with regional countries.
This study can be divided into three parts. First, the term power will be defined and the
main assumptions of Realism in International Relations theories will be explained. Then, in
the second part, hard power and soft power will be described and compared to each other
while the concept of soft power will be given relatively more importance, mostly focused on
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the concept of soft power. In the third and last part, this study analyzed Turkey's foreign
policy towards Central Asia at the beginning of 1990s. This paper asserts that Turkey
intended to use soft power on newly emerged Central Asian countries including Azerbaijan
after the collapse of former Soviet Union. The historical relations of Turkey with these
countries are also examined to prove this claim.
The definition of Power and Realism
The concept of power is one of the most important, most common and most cited
FRQFHSWV LQ LQWHUQDWLRQDO UHODWLRQV HVSHFLDOO\ LQ UHDOLVP µ5DGLFDO¶ UHDOLVWV H[FOXGH DOPRVW
HYHU\ FRQFHSW IURP LQWHUQDWLRQDO SROLWLFV H[FHSW IRU µSRZHU¶ DQG µLQWHUHVW¶ 'RQQHOOy, 2012:
51). For this reason, realism is the first phenomenon that comes into mind when considering
WKHFRQFHSWRIµSRZHU¶ 7KH ZRUG µSRZHU¶ HYRNHV UHDOLVP DV DQ ,5 WKHRU\ ZKHQ XVHG LQ DQ
academic text or speech. In order to facilitate the understanding of the concept of power, we
should have some information about the basic assumptions of Realism.
Realism makes some basic assumptions about international relations. First of all, the
state is the most important actor in international relations. For this assumption, the states’
governments are the most important actors in international politics. International
organizations, interest groups and individuals have no effect in international area. Secondly,
the state is a unitary and rational actor. Domestic actors cannot make the state change its
behaviour in international affairs. Thirdly, national interest is vital to the states. The primary
priority of every state is to promote its national interest and get power for this aim.
Fourthly, international system is anarchical. Hence, international relations among states are
also conflictual. That means there is no higher authority to prevent conflict or mediate among
states (Donnelly, 2012: 51). Fifth, all states want to stay alive, so security issues dominate the
international agenda. Thus, states have to strengthen their military force to survive.
However, after the World War I, international system focused on peacekeeping.
Therefore, collective security mechanism was designed to prevent a destructive war like the
First World War. This mechanism failed to maintain peace against Japan’s invasion of China
in 1931, Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939 and Stalin's invasion of Finland and finally the
emergence of the Second World War. All those wars obliged to take more effective steps that
FDXVHG5HDOLVPWREHLQWHUSUHWHGLQDQHZZD\LQLQWHUQDWLRQDOUHODWLRQV 6DQGÕNOÕDQG.D\D
2012: 144). Because of being the most prominent theory from the end of the 1930s until the
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Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
mid- VUHDOLVPLVRIWHQFDOOHGDVWKHµ7KHRU\RIWKH,QWHUQDWLRQDO5HODWLRQV¶ $\GÕQ
33).
The Role of Power in Realist Theory
The notion of power, as many of the concepts in social sciences, has different
definitions. It’s used in various contexts. Some scholars define power as capacity, some others
define it as effect, another group of scholars identify it as the aim of the policy, and it is also
GHVFULEHGDVDWRROWRUHDFKDJRDOIRUWKHRWKHUV $UÕ 1HYHUWKHOHVVPRVWRIWKH
current authors express that the concept of power is physical factor of the state.
From this point of view, the physical sense of power results in the use of force to attain the
goal while behavioral power is the ability to change the behavior of others in order to get the
GHVLUHG UHVXOWV $KPHW 'DYXWR÷OX GLYides power concept as potential data and fixed data.
While fixed data include history, geography, population and culture, potential data is
HFRQRP\ WHFKQRORJLFDO FDSDFLW\ DQG PLOLWDU\ FDSDFLW\ 'DYXWR÷OX -24). In
international relations, power means that one state influences the other state to do something
(Holsti, 1964: 181). Karl Deutsch defines power as the “ability to prevail in a conflict and to
overcome obstacles” and for Michael Sullivan “power is superiority, superiority is impact and
impaFWLVLQIOXHQFHRQRWKHUFRXQWULHV´ 6|QPH]R÷OX $FFRUGLQJWR7DUÕN2÷X]OX
(2007: 82), “power is the capacity to influence other actors and shape their preferences
WKURXJKWKHSRVVLELOLWLHVLQKDQG´2QWKHRWKHUKDQGJoseph Nye indicated that there are three
basic ways to affect the behaviour of others: (a) you can coerce them with threats, (b) you can
induce them with payments, (c) or you can attract and co-opt them (Nye, 2006,
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/netgov/files/talks/docs/11_06_06_seminar_Nye_HP_SP_Leaders
hip.pdf).
Although many definitions of power as a term is given above, it can also be divided
into different concepts as hard power and soft power. Hard power relates primarily to coercive
power such as the use of military force while soft power usually includes economics,
GLSORPDF\DQGFXOWXUDOLQIOXHQFH Yeşiltaş and Balcı
Hard Power
Hard power is the use of military and economic instruments to influence other political
actors’ behaviors and shape their preferences to realize their own interests. It was until 1990s
that the term “hard power” was used to express the relations among nations. The armament
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race between Eastern and Western blocks showed why the relations were explained with hard
power. However, with the end of the Cold-War, the use of hard power was begun to be
questioned.
In our age, the use of hard power gets gradually difficult and therefore the use of soft power
seems to be more reasonable. Nevertheless, the importance of military capabilities, which are
identified with the hard power in anarchical international environment, did not disappear
(Özdemir, 2008: 136). Also, soft power encourages hard power and it allows the use of hard
power when alleged to be needed.
Soft Power
The concept of soft power was firstly theorized by Joseph Nye in early 1990s. For Nye
(2004: 5), soft power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes you
want by attracting and co-opting them rather than coercing. In today’s information age, the
most efficient power seems to have the ability to guide, persuade and bargain of the public
opinion (Özdemir, 2008: 136). When a state’s desire is shared by others, it becomes easier to
take them under control. From this regard, when a state has become apparently legitimate, the
possibility of using soft power against that country increases. This is a different way of using
power, compared to hard power, some of whose instruments are coercion and payment.
Soft power can be used not just by states but also by the other actors such as film companies,
religious groups, media and universities in international politics (Nye, 2004: 15). However,
VRIWSRZHUDGPLWWHGDVµVHFRQGIDFHRISRZHU¶PHGLDWHO\LQFHQWVWKHVWDWHVWRDWWDLQLWVJRDO
According to Joseph Nye (2004: 5):
“A country may obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries – admiring its
values, emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness – want to follow it. In this
sense, it is also important to set the agenda and attract others in world politics, and not only to force
them to change by threatening military force or economic sanctions. This Soft Power – getting others to
want the outcomes that you want – co-opts people rather than coerces them.”
Soft power resources are the existences that produce seduction and this constantly
leads to approve. According to Nye (2004), seduction is always more effective than coercion,
and many values like democracy, human rights and individual opportunities are deeply
seductive.
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Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
In his book, Nye (2004) argues that soft power is more difficult instrument for
governments to use than hard power. There are two main reasons for this. First, many crucial
resources are outside the control of states. Secondly, soft power tends to “work indirectly by
shaping the environment for policy, and sometimes it takes years to produce the desired
conclusions.” As can be understood from his book, there are three broad categories of soft
power: “political, social, economic and cultural institutions of a country, political values and
execution of foreign policy.”
Soft Power in Turkish Foreign Policy towards Central Asia
Because of the international system was divided into two blocks as Western and
Eastern blocks, relations among countries of two blocks were restricted until the end of the
1980s. For this reason, during the Cold War, the countries who wanted to establish political,
cultural, economic relations with a country from the other block needed to get permision from
their own block leaders. That was the case when considering Turkey’s relations with the
Central Asian countries. During the Cold War period, the reason why Turkey failed to have
good relations with those Central Asian countries, whose people were from the same ethnic
origin and speaking same language, was that Turkey and the other Central Asian countries
belong to different blocks. Due to the priorities of the “West”, Turkey did not give the
necessary significance to the “East”. As a result of that, Turkey was caught unprepared when
the Soviet Union collapsed (Fidan, 2010: 110).
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, new countries emerged in Balkans,
&DXFDVXV DQG &HQWUDO $VLD )RU 6DEUL 6D\DUÕ ³WKH HPHUJHQFH RI $]HUEDLMDQ
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as independent states
ushered in a new stage in Turkey’s relations with the countries of Central Asia and Caspian
region.” Also, the interest of the great powers focused on these areas. Since the 1990s, the US
has been expanding both its economic and political power in the international system
(Yesiltas, 2009: 29). Therefore, Central Asia and Caucasus, famous with rich energy
UHVRXUFHVGUDZWKHLQWHUHVWRI1$72HVSHFLDOO\WKH86$ZKLFKLVWKHSURPLQHQWPHPEHURI
this organization. For many scholars, Turkey intended to establish historical, cultural,
linguistic and religious ties with the new Central Asian states since 1991 (Karamyan, Ishtiaq
and Naseer,2012; Efegil,2009; Robins,1993). In fact, today’s Turkish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA) is in the harmony with the then Turkey in terms of foreign policy towards this
region. MFA remarked that “Since 1991, our desire for a stable, independent and prosperous
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Central Asia has guided our policy priorities in the region towards building free market
economies and functioning democracies. Given our common historical, linguistic and cultural
ties, we have sought to increase engagement with this region on a broad range of issues. In
this respect, the High Level Strategic Cooperation Council mechanisms that we have
established with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and the Cooperation Council with Tajikistan
provide a useful basis to further our relations.” 2
With the end of the Cold War, Turkey’s strategic importance had started to decrease
IRU :HVWHUQ &RXQWULHV HVSHFLDOO\ IRU 1$72 6R 7XUNLVK SROLF\PDNHUV ZRUULHG DERXW What
unwanted situation. They had to do something to regain their strategic importance in Western
World (Efegil, 2008: 166). It might be the reason why Turkey pursued such an active foreign
SROLF\ DW WKDW WLPH GHVSLWH QRW KDYLQJ DQ\ H[SHULHQFH EHIRUH 2UDQ 2009: 237). Turkish
policymakers thought that if they had got a chance to influence the new regional countries,
Turkey would have been a more influental actor and pivotal state in the regional and world
politics. That would restore the relations with the Western world again.
Another point affecting the regional policy of Turkey was the emergence of the
Caspian region as potentially one of the largest energy suppliers in the World. 2ZLQJWRWKH
geographical position Turkey enjoys, part of its national strategy involves facilitating the
transit of energy across its territory, which is central to the East-West energy corridor
'DYXWR÷OX For Bülent Aras (2000: 39), “Turkey hoped to find guaranteed access
to vital energy resources, lucrative oil transport revenues, and new markets for Turkish goods,
especially in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan.” Turkey’s own growing demand for
QDWXUDOJDVDOVRSOD\HGDVLJQLILFDQWUROHLQ7XUNH\¶VVHDUFKIRUDODUJHUSLYRWDOVWDWH 6D\DUÕ
2000: 173). Russia was the main natural gas supplier of Turkey and Turkey was dependent on
Russia regarding the natural gas trade. Turkey wanted to diverse it and the main target was to
find new energy resources and reduce its dependence on Russia in the field of energy trade.
Also the Western powers wanted to cut out Russia while transfering the natural gas to the
West. Their plan was to provide the natural gas transmission and distribution piping systems
of Central Asia to be conveyed to Europe through Turkey. Here, we see that Turkey aimed to
increase its own economic interest. Turkey’s intention was to attract these countries’ attention
by using some soft power tools such as common culture and economic cooperation.
The leaders of the Western states viewed Turkey as a country that supports their
approaches towards those states (Robins, 1993: 593). Despite looking optimistically to the
2
http://www.mfa.gov.tr/turkey_s-relations-with-central-asian-republics.en.mfa
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Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
energy transfer, western countries didn’t want radical or political Islam to rise in the region.
Therefore, they decided to support Turkey -the only Muslim country with a secular and
GHPRFUDWLFUHJLPHLQ1$72 %DOFÕDQG0Lú - as a model for those states (Ataman,
2002: 134). Turkish politicians, sharing the same ideas, suggested Turkey’s secular, capitalist
system as a model to the Central Asian and Caucasian states, too (Efegil, 2009: 73).
The then Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel remarked that, with the disintegration of the
Soviet Union, Turkey widened although its borders remain stable. He also stated,
“Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are interested in our
country. The borders will be opened. Turkey expanded despite of the fact that the borders
remained stable. In other words, Turkey enlarged from Adriatic to the Chinese Wall. All
nations in the Caucausus are brothers of us. Turkey is the apple of that region’s eye”
³6RY\HWOHU¶LQGD÷ÕOPDVÕ7UNL\H¶\LE\WW´0LOOL\HW :HFDQXQGHUVWDQGIURPWKLV
statement that Turkey aimed to influence with an emphasis on the same ethnic origins and the
same culture –which is one of the main elements of soft power theory. Additionally, Turgut
Özal the then President of Turkey, remarked that Turkey served as a bridge between the
Middle East and the Soviet Union for the businessmen. With this feature, Turkey would be a
ULVLQJFRXQWU\RIWKHVWFHQWXU\ ³7UNL\H\]\ÕOÕQIODúONHVLRODFDN´0LOOL\HW
He also added that “21st century will be Turkish Century if we don’t make huge mistakes”
³'úOHULPL]GHNL7UNL\H´0LOOL\HW
Serious concrete steps were taken to achieve those policies (Efegil, 2009: 73). At first,
delegations were sent to the region by Turkey, then their tendencies were analyzed, later their
independences were recognized, after that official ties were established. Then Turkey took
LQWR FRQVLGHUDWLRQ WKHLU GHPDQGV DQG FRRSHUDWHG ZLWK WKRVH FRXQWULHV 2UDQ
Turkey was the first country to establish diplomatic and economic relations with all Central
Asian countries.3
Turkey tried to develop economic, cultural, social and political relations with regional
countries through some institutions. Some of these institutions were established in 1992 under
the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs such as the Turkish International Cooperation
Development Agency [TIKA (Türk øúELUOL÷L YH .DONÕQPD $MDQVÕ @ DQG )RUHLJQ (FRQRPLF
5HODWLRQV %RDUG >'(ø. 'Õú (NRQRPLN øOLúNLOHU .XUXOX @ g]NDQ -121). Airline
flights began among the capitals, satellite broadcasts over Turkey were set in these countries
and educational scholarships were given to students (Weitz, 2006: 123). We see here the other
3
http://www.mfa.gov.tr/turkey_s-relations-with-central-asian-republics.en.mfa
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basic elements of soft power – economic relations. In addition to these economic policies,
Turkey pioneered the process of “The Summits of Turkic Speaking Countries' Heads of
States”, held since 1992 in order to increase solidarity between the Turkic Speaking Countries
and to create new cooperation opportunities among them. 4
$OO WKHVH QHZ &HQWUDO $VLDQ FRXQWULHV DQG $]HUEDLMDQ MRLQHG (&2 (FRQRPLF
&RRSHUDWLRQ 2UJDQL]DWLRQ LQ ZKLch had been established in 1985 during the rule of
Turgut Özal government. Its founding members are Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. With the
inclusion of the new members, Turkey pursued the way of strengthening its economic
relations with those Central Asian countries. In 1994, Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC)
joined a consortium of oil companies and the Azeri government was established to extract oil
IURPWKH&DVSLDQ6HDILHOGV 6D\DUÕ 7KHDLPRIWKH7XUNLVKJRYHUQPHQWZDVWR
increase its gas imports by that way Turkey signed a number of bilateral and multilateral
agreements with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. At the same time, Turkey was
very enthusiastic for the construction of pipelines that transport Caspian energy supplies from
Turkey WR:HVWHUQ:RUOGDQG(XURSH 6D\DUÕ
7XUNH\ SUHVHQWHG KHUVHOI DV D FRXQWU\ ZKLFK µZLOO EULQJ VWDELOLW\¶ WR WKH UHJLRQ
GHFODUHGLWVHOIDVDµUHJLRQDOSRZHU¶DQGXVHGH[SUHVVLRQVOLNHµVWFHQWXU\ZLOOEH7XUNLVK
&HQWXU\¶DQGµWKHXQLRQRI7XUkic states from the Adriatic to the Chinese Wall’ (Mufti, 1998:
38).Those policies and discourses show us that Turkey pursued soft power approaches to the
new Central Asian countries. However, they were probably not conscious about the name of
those policiHVFDOOHGDVµVRIWSRZHU¶EHFDXVHDWWKRVHWLPHVVRIWSRZHUZDVQRWFRPPRQDVD
concept for Turkish policymakers and maybe for the rest of the world.
As mentioned above, the soft power of a country is based primarily on three elements: culture,
political values and qualified foreign policies (Nye, 2004: 11). Turkey wanted to influence
those countries with the emphasis on common culture. In other words, they claimed that the
QHZ &HQWUDO $VLDQ FRXQWULHV DQG 7XUNH\ VKDUHG WKH VDPH LQWHUHVWV %\ XVLQJ WKH µTurkish
&HQWXU\¶GLVFRXUVHV7XUNH\WULHGWRFRQYLQFHWKHQHZ&HQWUDO$VLDQFRXQWULHVWKDWµ7XUNLVK
community’ will be stronger with them.
Why did Turkey want to establish an impact on these countries? What was the aim of
Turkey? Did Turkey really want pursue their interests or its own interests? Besides did
Turkey managed to realize its policies? As an answer, it would be wrong to say that Turkey
just considered those countries’ interests. We can even say Turkey often considered its own
4
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Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
interests. In fact, soft power policy requires it. According to soft power theory, your interest is
primary when compared to the interests of others. Turkey seems to make co-operation with
these countries for mostly its own economic and political interests.
Two important factors are necessary to be successful in soft power policy. These are
legitimacy and reliability. The achievement of the soft power policy depends on the other
countries’ legitimization of your policy. Joseph Nye clarifies it as follows (2004: 10-11):
“When countries make their power legitimate in the eyes of others, they encounter less resistance to
their wishes. If a country’s culture and ideology are attractive, others more willingly follow. If a country
can shape international rules that are consistent with its interests and values, its actions will more likely
appear legitimate in the eyes of others. If it uses institutions and follows rules that encourage other
countries to channel or limit their activities in ways it prefers, it will not need as many costly carrots and
sticks.”
When we look at the events of that time, we can say that Turkey’s policies failed in
SUDFWLFH DQG ZHUH XQDEOH WR DWWUDFW WKRVH FRXQWULHV 7XUNH\¶V GLVFRXUVH RI µELJ EURWKHU¶ DQG
failure of economic aid caused a negative image for the new countries of Central Asia. That is
EHFDXVHWKH\KDGMXVW JDLQHGWKHLULQGHSHQGHQFHDQGWKH\GLGQRWZDQWWRQHZµELJEURWKHU¶
like Soviet Union. They also did not trust Turkey because of the disruptions of economic aid.
To sum up, Turkey lost its effect on these countries.
According to Nye (2004: 11), some analysts over simplify soft power just as popular
cultural power. They make the mistake by equating soft power tools with the cultural
resources. They confuse behavior of attraction and culWXUDOUHVRXUFHV2QO\FXOWXUDOLQIOXHQFHV
are away from being efficient. In order to use cultural influence effectively, the other
assumptions –economy, political values and quality of foreign policies- must be used logically
and effectively. Moreover, advanced economic resources are crucial to accomplish soft power
policy. If the countries have insufficient economies, they are not able to attract the target
country. Turkey’s economic inadequancy was the main reason for the failure of influencing
those Central Asian countries.
As a result, as Turkey’s policies failed in the region, Russia Federation has totally
established its dominance. In fact Turkish policymakers ignored the Russian influence on the
region. Although the new countries of Central Asia were independent and their ethnic origins
were Turks, the majority of the people of these countries speak Russian, and Russian was still
the second official language. Hence, we can say Russian effect was another reason for the
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failure of Turkish influence. Actually from the outset, Turkey and Russia –and maybe Iran-
competed to achieve their domination over the region (Aras, 2000: 42). Turkey lost and
Russia won this competition. So how did Russia manage to take these new Central Asian
countries under its control? Did Russia use soft power, hard power or something else? That is
another story. This paper only tried to explain Turkey’s soft power behaviours towards the
Central Asia.
Conclusion
A country which uses soft power, aims to dominate or take the other country its own
side by attracting her. However, there is no difference between hard power and soft power in
terms of this aim (Nye, 2006: 4).Though their goals are the same, their means are different.
While hard power prefers military power and economic sanctions to dominate other countries,
soft power prefers some other tools like culture, political values, diplomacy to dominate or
take own side. Joseph Nye (2004: 17) gives some examples of the USA’s soft power tools,
and even Michael Jordan, Hollywood, Microsoft and Harvard is said to have been used as
attractant.
Today, most of the time it is not possible to influence a country by using military
force. These hard power policies are not regarded as legitimate anymore by the other
country’s public. To attract the people of the other state, the policies intended to be
implemented should be considered as legal and this makes it easier to dominate over that
country.
Turkish foreign policy was revised with the end of the Cold War and the disintegration
of the Soviet Union in 1991 (Fidan, 2010: 109). Turkey developed some policies to attract
Central Asian countries in early 1990s and acted for its own interests. Turkey highlighted
especially common culture, common history and common identity with those countries.
Nevertheless, it would be wrong to state that Turkey wanted to dominate the new Turkic
republics of Central Asia. Turkey pursued active policy to regain its strategic importance,
tried to ensure economic growth by achieving economic benefits and prevent possible identity
conflicts in the region.
Turkey’s efforts to expand its role and influence in the Central Asia gave some good
results. For example, Turkey has succeeded in establishing its presence in new Turkic
republics, especially in Azerbaijan, despite being unsatisfactory for Turkey. Besides,
economic and cultural interactions between Turkey and the Turkic republics have increased
123
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Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
Turkey’s Soft Power towards Central Asian Countries after the Cold War
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could not succeed in implementing these policies due to the lack of advanced economies,
absence of common borders, Russian presence in the region and the reluctance of the Turkic
republics leaders to become dependent on another country after decades of dependence on the
Soviet Union.
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