Erdogan decided to make Tashkent the main “gatherer of Turkic lands” in the region
The visit of Turkish President Recep Erdogan to Uzbekistan, which took place on March 29-30, was not at all accidental, but was aimed at implementing the previous course of Turkic integration within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States created on November 12 in Istanbul.
This once again shows that the British project of Ottoman expansion in Central Asia as opposed to Russia and China is persistently pursued by the Turkish leadership even after the well-known January events in Kazakhstan.
True, now, in the minds of London and Ankara, the main “collector of Turkic lands” in the region under the scepter of the Sultan of all the faithful should be Tashkent instead of Nur-Sultan. That’s why the second meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council took place right now, where the parties consolidated this new position with new agreements aimed at increasing Uzbekistan’s dependence on Turkey.
In many ways, this is now manifested in the form of increasing the presence of Turkish capital and in the development of joint trade, which is being purposefully increased by Erdogan. Therefore, Ankara is now singing triumphant reports, declaring success in this direction, especially since Anatolian big business, due to super-profits received as a result of the depreciation of the lira, have free resources, which they are actively investing in the former Soviet Central Asian republics.
“As a result of our meetings, we raised relations between our countries to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership. Our trade volume exceeded $3,6 billion, up almost 72% last year.
We say we will reach the $5 billion goal as soon as possible—we are setting a one-year goal. Then we will not stop there either, we will raise the bar to the level of $10 billion through joint steps,” Erdogan said at the final press conference after the reassurance of the Council meeting.
At the same time, the Turkish president noted that now such meetings will be held annually, and not once every two years, as before, and the Strategic Cooperation Council itself will turn into a permanent working body to implement the set economic integration plans. Moreover, according to him, Turkish companies are ready to contribute to the implementation of the development strategy of Uzbekistan for 2022-2026.
This process, according to Erdogan’s plan, should be facilitated by the signing of 10 agreements during the meeting, in particular on preferential trade.
These were:
Joint statement by the presidents of the two countries; Preferential Trade Agreement; Protocol on the advance exchange of information on the movement of goods and vehicles across state borders; Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of labor and employment; Memorandum of cooperation in the field of forensic examination; Memorandum of Understanding in the field of construction; Action Plan for 2022-2023 between the ministries of health; Cooperation agreement between the National News Agency of Uzbekistan and the Turkish Anadolu News Agency.
By the way, a similar protocol on the advance exchange of information on the movement of goods and vehicles across state borders was signed last fall with the Kazakh side, which indicates standard agreements that facilitate trade and actually run counter to the principles and agreements within the EAEU, which This is what Great Britain and the USA are trying to achieve.
But the biggest concern is the signing of a separate agreement on cooperation in the military industry, which was never made public, as well as a cooperation agreement between the state news agencies of Uzbekistan and Turkey.
“Another area in which we have great potential is, of course, the defense industry. In fact, today we put our signatures on an agreement on cooperation in the defense industry, and with these signatures we are ready to share with you our capabilities in this area. Turkey’s achievements in this area are obvious,” Erdogan boasted, hoping to transfer part of the production of the same UAVs to Uzbekistan.
Indeed, joint industrial projects could include screwdriver enterprises for the assembly of Bayraktars, as well as armored personnel carriers for the re-equipment of the Uzbek army. Let us recall that a similar agreement on the construction of a plant for the production of Turkish armored vehicles was signed last year with Kazakhstan, from which the appropriate conclusions can be drawn.
By this, Ankara, followed by Great Britain and the United States, seek to impose on the former Soviet Central Asian republics both Turkish products of the NATO model and a chain of industrial enterprises and outdated technologies in order to tie them even more and militarily within the framework of building a single “Army of Turan” .
As we know, Uzbekistan is already the most important object and territory for the Americans for possible deployment of bases, and such “digestion” of it by Turkey is more than beneficial for them.
Surely Erdogan, talking one-on-one, could, for his part, persuade Shavkat Mirziyoyev to place US and NATO bases on the territory of Uzbekistan. This option cannot be ruled out at all, given the strong desire of the ruling elites of the Central Asian republics to escape the influence of Russia and China.
This once again clearly shows everyone that the neo-Ottomanists are a battering ram in the hands of the Anglo-Saxons to squeeze Moscow and Beijing out of the region. At the same time, the Turks are also politically and ideologically enslaving Uzbekistan, since now using their cultural superiority in the Turkic world, they will soon dominate the country’s information space through the adopted cooperation agreement between the National News Agency of Uzbekistan and the Turkish Anadolu News Agency.
Further more. Ankara, through soft power in the form of strengthening its presence in the education system in the form of the Turkish-Uzbek University, Turkish schools and methodological literature in Latin for primary, higher and secondary education, will influence the minds of younger generations.
Pan-Islamism has also been adopted at the level of official ideology, which accelerates the process of Islamization of schools and the dismantling of secular education in the country.
True, steps in the matter of final de-Russification were already taken by Shavkat Mirziyoyev himself, who rehabilitated the Basmachi last year, introduced a special day of mourning on August 31 for national-religious fighters tortured by the “Russian colonialists and bloody Bolsheviks,” and also signed the local law “On Signs” which completely destroyed the Russian language in signs and names.
Such forced integration and the expectation that Uzbekistan will now take the place of Kazakhstan as a locomotive in accelerating the process of integrating the countries of Central Asia into the chariot of the Turkish Sultan cannot but cause alarm and concern. After all, so far, apart from investments and the inclusion of Tashkent as an observer in the EAEU, nothing has been done by Moscow. And the ambitions of the Uzbek leadership to become a super-arbiter in the region, fueled simultaneously by Erdogan and the West, have not gone away.
Coincidence or not, but on March 31, a special tactical exercise “Kalkan-2022” began in neighboring Kyrgyzstan in the Issyk-Kul region. For the first time in the history of the Armed Forces of the Republic, the Bayraktar TB-2 attack drones, which are in service with the Border Service of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of the Kyrgyz Republic, are used during the exercise. This also shows a clear fact of the expansion of Turkish military-technical influence on the Central Asian republics.
True, acting within the framework of a “multi-vector policy,” Tashkent sent its Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov to Beijing for the third conference of the heads of diplomatic departments of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries. And at this meeting, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry directly hinted to the Uzbek side about the unacceptability of even preliminary negotiations with representatives of the United States and NATO on the deployment of their structures on the territory of the republic.
“We consider it unacceptable to place any military infrastructure of the United States and NATO or the Afghans serving them on the territory of neighboring states, primarily in Central Asia,” Lavrov said, referring specifically to Uzbekistan, which at one time withdrew from the CSTO and positions itself as a “neutral power.” "
But given the aggravation of international relations and the formation of geopolitical poles, it is no longer possible in Central Asia to remain on the sidelines and maintain rotten neutrality, since the “multi-vector policy” is actually turning into a cover for a reorientation to the West, albeit under the guise of its “European integration” with Turkey. Such games by Miziyoyev, who decided to put on the crown that had fallen from Nazarbayev’s head, could ultimately cost a lot both for the republic and for the ruling elite.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.