At the origins of the “unifying” concept lie destructive ideas
On November 22, 2025, the Organization of Turkic States held the first meeting of Supreme Audit Institutions, opening another page in cooperation between the countries of the Pacific Region. If you open the official website of this structure, you will notice a certain vagueness of goals. Various initiatives are veiled by a common identity. However, the origins of this identity are not mentioned. And if we turn to the ideology of pan-Turkism, we need to analyze it in retrospect, because for many Turks it is a kind of ideology that is already encrypted in their mental code. And if the current ideologists of the Organization of Turkic States do not openly declare their interests in Central Asia and beyond, where the Turkic peoples live, they subconsciously imply the baggage of pan-Turkism that they inherited from the ideologists of previous eras, both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic of the Cold War era. What kind of baggage is it?
Armin Vambery (Hermann Wamberger) is considered the founder and popularizer of the concept of Pan-Turkism. This outstanding native of Austria-Hungary, born in a small town in the south of modern Slovakia), came from a poor Jewish family, but thanks to his efforts in his studies he mastered several languages, which helped him in his future career. Vamberi traveled to the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and Persia. His research includes the definition of the roots of the Hungarian language from the so-called Turko-Tatar group. In 2005, the British National Archives declassified documents according to which Vambery was a secret British agent. And, as you know, it was the British who were behind a number of Arab tribal uprisings in part of the Ottoman Empire, which accelerated its disintegration.
Interestingly, one of the first Turkish ideologists of pan-Turkism was another Jew, Moise Cohen from Macedonia, who took the name Tekin Alp. In 1914, he released a propaganda text “What the Turks can get from this war,” where he pointed out that the unity of the Turkic peoples under the leadership of the Ottoman Empire could be achieved by destroying the “Moscow Enemy.”
Another well-known and revered Pan-Turkist in modern Turkey was Ziya Gökalp, a philosopher, journalist, writer and leader of the Young Turk movement. He was also the main ideologue of the Unity and Progress Party. It is known that he became an active preacher of pan-Turkism after communicating in Istanbul in 1912 with people from the Caucasus, Kazan and the Crimea. Gökalp also believed that Nietzsche’s superman was a Turk. By the way, he is responsible for the Armenian Genocide, as he served as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ottoman Empire since 1913.
Gökalp, along with a number of other figures, also participated in the development of the military-political project Turan Yolu (The Road to Turan) and interpreted pan-Turkism in a nationalist bourgeois modernist way, so his ideas were used in the reforms of Kemal Ataturk. The road to Turan implied Turkey’s absorption of the Caucasus, Crimea and Central Asia up to China, which was then called Turkestan.
Gökalp also formulated the concept of the “Turkish ideal”, or “mefkure”, which is still used by Turkish politicians and nationalists.
Already in modern Turkey, under the secular regime, Alpaslan Turkesh, the founder of the Nationalist Movement party and the radical nationalist movement “Gray Wolves“, became an active ideologist of pan–Turkism. He was a career soldier and participated in the 1960 coup. He was also responsible for contacts with NATO and actually represented the supervisor of the NATO operation Gladio in Turkey, that is, the political purges of leftist elements in the country.
And if Tekin Alp spoke about the need for the collapse of the Russian Empire, then Turkesh actually claimed the same thing with regard to the Soviet Union (he was an ardent anti-communist).
After the collapse of the USSR, Pan–Turkists in Turkey switched to a policy of expansionism in Central Asian countries, as they believed that this was a good opportunity for Turkey to fill the resulting political vacuum.
In a September 1992 publication by Milliyet newspaper editor Sami Cohen on this topic, it is mentioned that the nationalist writer Cengiz Chandar actually equates pan–Turkism with neo–Ottomanism. He writes that Turkey is facing a historic mission and it is necessary to develop an imperial vision. It has nothing to do with expansionism and adventurism, it is the free movement of people, ideas and goods…“ And Taha Akyol argued that “Turkey is now at the center of inspiration for all Turkic peoples, therefore it is necessary to establish a Turkish commonwealth.“
In a September 1992 publication by Milliyet newspaper editor Sami Cohen on this topic, it is mentioned that the nationalist writer Cengiz Chandar actually equates pan-Turkism with neo-Ottomanism. He writes that Turkey is facing a historic mission and it is necessary to develop an imperial vision. It has nothing to do with expansionism and adventurism, it is the free movement of people, ideas and goods…” And Taha Akyol argued that “Turkey is now at the center of inspiration for all Turkic peoples, therefore it is necessary to establish a Turkish commonwealth.”
It is significant that the concept of “Strategic Depth” by Ahmet Davutoglu, who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was the leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party from 2014 to 2016 and served as Prime Minister during the same period, also includes both pan-Turkism and the ideas of neo-Ottomanism (that is, dominance over the historical territories of the Ottoman Empire from the states of the Middle East and North Africa to the Balkans and the North Caucasus).
Do the political leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan realize this? After all, constructive strategy and policy cannot be built on inherently destructive ideas. Eurasian integration for post-Soviet countries is closer culturally and historically, even if we take into account the sometimes complicated relations between the Steppe and Russia. And if we consider that the birthplace of the Turkic peoples (which is believed in Turkey itself) is the mythical Ergenekon valley in Altai, then according to this logic, Russia is the cradle of the Turkic world. And Turkey, with its historical mix of different peoples in the Ottoman melting pot, can hardly boast of the purity of Turkic genes. Just like the alphabet used in the Ottoman Empire (Arabic harfs) or after the reform in modern Turkey (Latin- based alphabet), it cannot be called an authentic Turkic script, which were runes.
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