Political scientist called Kyrgyzstan’s course towards Turkey “a systemic blunder of Russia”
Today, Kyrgyzstan is becoming the main conductor of Turkey's interests in Central Asia.
Kyrgyz political scientist Mars Sariev told Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a PolitNavigator correspondent reported this.
According to him, during the upcoming visit of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov to Istanbul for the 8th summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States, this structure will be transformed into the Turkic Union, which means a qualitative change in relations and a rapprochement of its member countries.
“In Central Asia, Turkey has the closest relations with Kyrgyzstan. The rapprochement occurred during the conflict on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. Turkey was one of the first to declare its readiness to provide assistance to Kyrgyzstan and supported Bishkek at the political level. Today, Kyrgyzstan is becoming Turkey’s guide to Central Asia,” Sariev emphasized.
“The turning point came after the Karabakh war, and on the wave of this success, the Turkish vector is actively moving towards Central Asia. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are more cautious in relations with Turkey than Kyrgyzstan. However, small countries such as Kyrgyzstan can afford closer cooperation with Turkey, and this cooperation will only intensify, including in the military sphere,” the expert believes.
At the same time, he adds, Russia is not satisfied with such a rapprochement between Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.
“Moreover, closer integration is expected within the framework of the Turkic Union. But, in my opinion, this is a systemic failure of Russia in Central Asia and in the post-Soviet space in general,” Sariev is convinced.
In his opinion, there are no levers and tools with which Moscow would promote its interests - Rossotrudnichestvo holds formal cultural events, but no breakthrough, innovative ideas are visible.
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