Turkey and Pan-Turkism Influence on the Development of New National Identities in the Caspian Region: The Evidence from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan

Abstract

The article focuses on how Turkey and Pan-Turkish ideology influenced the development of new national identities in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and the results of this influence. The theoretical basis of this study lies in the concept of transnational political spaces (ethno-worlds), which form new identities due to the spread of cultural patterns. The practical basis of this study entails a synthesis of several sociological methods: content analysis of data published from January 2, 2022, to July 31, 2023, collected according to specified criteria; surveys in the form of an electronic questionnaire; and a set of focused group and expert interviews attended by citizens of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The results showed that “soft power” in both countries influences the field of those policies that are crucial for the development of new identities: education, language, memory, symbology, etc. The mechanisms for promoting identity politics in Turkic countries are the main strength of the formation process in this ethno-world. The results of the study demonstrate educational programs to be the most effective tool, whose status allows the returned youth to become a part of a new elite in their countries, as well as emissaries of Pan-Turkist ideas. Based on the content analysis data, it can be noted that though TurkishKazakh and Turkish-Turkmen relations are actively and positively developing, primarily in the economic sphere, they still have certain contradictions. Though Pan-Turkish ideas and Turkish cultural patterns are presented in the information agendas of the analyzed countries, they are not their trends.