Belt and Road Project and Turkey’s Central Asian

Özet

The rich background of Turkish-Chinese relations would appear to be entering a new phase with the Belt and Road Project being spearheaded by the Beijing government. Turkey’s Central Asian policy, which gained momentum with the developments following 1991, but which then slowed for a while, gained a new dimension after 2016. The potential of China’s Belt and Road Project, Turkey’s expectations from Central Asia, and the extent to which the methods and dynamics of foreign policy will be useful in these regards are the main focus of the present study. In our paper, after providing a historical overview and examination of the events of 1991 and the era that followed, especially under Ozal’s government, Ozal’s actions and statements indicating rapprochement, and that are considered important, will be assessed. Following this, observations and extractions will be made to assess the extent to which China’s post-2013 Belt and Road Initiative and Turkish foreign policy goals are in harmony or conflict. Changes in Turkey’s official standpoint as regards to the Gulen movement and its intensive activities in Central Asia, among a number of similar structures, have brought a new dimension to the agenda. On the other hand, the crossing of Turkey’s path by China with the Belt and Road Initiative makes the matter even more worthy of study. This paper, after addressing all these details, will hopefully lead to further researches and works, with an intermediate result for the future rather than a conclusion.