PATTERNS OF INTEGRATION IN CENTRAL ASIA, Erhan BÜYÜKAKINCI

Abstract

One of the most important events of the twentieth century was no doubt the break up of the USSR. The disintegration of the Union opened a new stage of multidimensional interactions both for the successor states and for the other countries involved in this historical evolution. Students of this process of transition, in which all the new independent states are living, prefer to categorise these countries in clusters relating to their geopolitical position and to their social-economic and ethnic structures. It could be argued that trends towards the integrationist policies in the long-term have taken shape and developed within the framework of these clusters.