THE TURKISH MODEL AND THE TURKIC REPUBLICS

Abstract

Following the collapse of the USSR, Turkey and Iran were considered to be rival powers which would fill the Central Asian and Caucasian power vacuum left by the former superpower and which would be imitated by the newly independent states in their search for a political model, nationhood and identity. During the early days of this competition, the West supported Turkey. The ‘Turkish Model’ was put forward as an ideal Muslim democracy and a model of development especially for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, which are Muslim in religion and have ethnic and linguistic ties to Turkey. Iran, on the other hand, was usually regarded as the representative of fundamentalist Islam and oppression, and it was feared that Iran sought to export its regime to this unstable region using its historical, geographical and religious ties. The aim of this paper is, first, to give brief information about the design of the Turkish Model after the establishment of Turkish republic. Second, to underline some weaknesses of the model and to find the factors that made the Turkish Model popular in 1990s, immediately after the collapse of the USSR. In conclusion, a brief explanation about decline of the model will be given.