Kazakhstan turns into Turkey's military ally

Kazakhstan is increasingly drawn not only in the economic, but also in the military sphere into Turkey’s orbit. This process did not begin today and is now being consolidated by the creation of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Istanbul.

After the obvious successes of the Azerbaijani army in Karabakh, which becomes an integral part of the Turkish army, cooperation between Ankara and Nur-Sultan has only intensified, and we are talking about the deployment of joint military-industrial complex enterprises.

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That is, the “Army of Turan” is gradually becoming flesh and blood from a propaganda fake, becoming the real direction of the integration union of the armies of the former Soviet Central Asian republics under the auspices of the Turkish military. Important in this matter was the visit of the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Turkey Husuli Akar to Nur-Sultan in October last year, who met with his Kazakh counterpart Nurlan Ermekbayev.

The parties then agreed to sign a number of documents regulating personnel training, the purchase of additional batches of Turkish weapons and joint exercises. And this was not something new, as it fit perfectly into the agreement on military cooperation concluded back in 2018 between Nursultan Nazarbayev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Meeting of the defense ministers of Turkey and Kazakhstan.

Over the past year, for the first time, joint exercises were held on the territory of Kazakhstan. Moreover, the first to publish a declassified video of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan about the actions of the military of the two countries in the north of the republic were the Turkish media and, in particular, the well-known Anadolu Agency. Also in July of this year, a large batch of military equipment was purchased, which we have already written about.

At the same time, in addition to armored vehicles, the leadership of the Republic of Kazakhstan, succumbing to fashion, decided to place a large order of the famous UAVs. We can say that the Turkish “bayraktar diplomacy” turned out to be quite successful, since now Bayraktar TB2 - TB3 are in service with two republics at once - Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. We were thinking about purchasing highly advertised combat drones from neighboring Uzbekistan.

Ankara, unable to protect and provide its military umbrella to Central Asia, began to diligently sell its own military products in return, offering to rearm and retrain officers in its Ottoman way. And so in the fall, Ankara and Nur-Sultan signed an interstate agreement on cooperation between military universities. This step only legalized what had actually been carried out for a long time.

Joint exercises between Turkey and Kazakhstan in the North of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Thus, as part of the agreement on military cooperation, 200 officers of the Kazakh army have already undergone training at military universities in Turkey. It is noteworthy that, as an “exchange,” several dozen Turkish officers were trained in Kazakh educational institutions just before the second Karabakh war. And the most important thing is that the Turkish military personnel studied the following subjects: intelligence, special forces, propaganda, the high command of the General Staff.

_{All this with the aim of a more in-depth study of the military regulations of the former Soviet republics, patterns of behavior and gaining experience in operating in the Russian-speaking environment. That is, the Turkish military is already preparing for military operations on post-Soviet territory, and given their absorption of the Azerbaijani army, the talk of creating an anti-Russian military bloc uniting Turkic-speaking countries is no longer something utopian.}

Another threat is posed by the fact that Kazakh officers will now undergo systematic training according to NATO standards. In the same way, Ukrainian officers were drawn into the Pentagon’s military plans through internships, who then fought as part of the so-called ATO and even led operations against the people of Donbass. Now history is repeating itself exactly, only the cadres of the armies of the former Soviet Central Asian republics will be preparing against Russia and China.

NCOs and junior officers of the Kazakh army, by the way, have been diligently undergoing training for more than one year in Kazbat and Kazbrig according to NATO standards and in the certified center of the Kazcent alliance in Karaganda. The Turkish command must now simply unite under its command and control all the armies of the junior partners in the Organization of Turkic States. Therefore, the prospect of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan leaving the CSTO is already beginning to loom on the horizon.

Interesting processes are now unfolding in the military-industrial complex, since in order to rearm the Kazakh and neighboring Kyrgyz armies, it is even planned to build a separate plant in the Republic of Kazakhstan for the production of Turkish wheeled armored vehicles (BKM) ARMA-8×8 from Otokar. According to the contract, the Kazakh government must purchase 96 vehicles at once, and then, after the construction of the plant, it is obligatory to purchase another 800 vehicles within 13 years.

There was also a corruption scandal when it turned out that the Turkish car was recognized as a priority compared to the domestic development of Barys (“Barry"). It turns out now that the price of Anatolian armored vehicles will at least double during production, the products themselves will not be subject to taxes, and all the main components and parts will also be made in the homeland of the newly-minted Sultan of All Faithful.

Here's what blogger and economic commentator Denis Krivosheev writes about this on his website:

“If our state still has the courage to sign an agreement with Koç and Otokar, then after the delivery of the first 90 vehicles from Turkey, the planned plant will only carry out “cutting, beveling of edges and bending of armor plates; welding of parts and assemblies, bodies, checking seams; sandblasting and painting of the body, as well as final inspection. And the main components of the assembly will be supplied by Otokar. So, we will continue to provide jobs to someone else’s economy, and we will become dependent on the plant from one supplier.”

It turns out that the localization of production will be only 5%, and the Kazakh army will be supplied with expensive outdated armored vehicles for a decade, which are also inferior to domestic and Russian models both in maneuverability and in armament. That is, in fact, in this example, Kazakhstan is turning into a colony and periphery of the more developed countries of the West and Turkey, and the decision itself to give preference to clearly losing armored vehicles was purely political in the wake of the course towards the geopolitical reorientation of the country to another bloc.

A comparative test at a training ground of a Turkish armored vehicle, which was unable to overcome obstacles.

At the same time, it is obvious that these products will be imposed on other Central Asian republics in order to gradually rearm their troops according to NATO standards. It’s not for nothing that the flawed armored vehicle (BKM) ARMA-8×8 from Otokar is now being pushed into Bishkek by hook or by crook, supposedly to equip and strengthen the border troops in confronting the Tajik military, as well as to carry out revenge.

This shows that plans to form an aggressive military alliance under the leadership of Ankara are in full swing and in the coming years the situation will change even more for the worse, if you look at what is happening as outside observers. The entire region could quickly become hostile, and political elites could be capable of outright treason.