The failed military coup in Turkey in 2016 have ushered a new era of the country’s domestic and foreign politics. After having mopped up the political arena of Turkey, the national-minded bourgeoisie turned to escalation of the external expansion.

Syria was some kind of a “literary” debut for Turkish imperialism where at a pretext of fight against the terrorist threat and establishment of safety area in the north, the retrogressive regime proceeded to the elimination of the Kurdish autonomy.

In 2020, Libya, yet another country almost destroyed by the imperialist powers, was found to be in the way of the Turkish “national” interests.

The imperialist endeavors of the most outspoken part of the Turkish ruling class were most pronounced in Turkey’s position in the conflict on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh where it openly sided with Azerbaijan. In recent decades, the ambitious plans of the Turkish bourgeoisie turn into neo-Ottomanism and pan-Turkism extending their influence over the post-Soviet territory, and this becomes an essential factor in international politics.

Ideas that run deep in the past are now in demand by the Turkish bourgeoisie as an instrument for promoting imperialist ambitions both in the former USSR and in other countries.

Actually, the idea, as such, is nothing new. In the later years of the USSR, the representatives of non-governmental social and political organizations of Turkey were the first to establish contacts with nationalist-oriented circles of republics. At their invitation, visitors from the republics of Caucasus, Central Asia, Volga Region and Siberia began to come.

The collapse of the USSR contributed to the government-level contacts – the Turkic-speaking republics of the former USSR have been first visited by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and then by the Prime-Minister of Turkey.

The key focus areas where Turkey may influence on the Turkic-speaking republics of the post-Soviet territory have been defined:

1) Economic cooperation involving not only trade, but also Turkey’s financial and economic assistance to Turkic-speaking and Muslim republics;

2) Cultural and outreach activities involving the opening of Turkish educational institutions, invitation of students to study in Turkey, Turkish radio and TV broadcasting;

3) Introduction of ideas to Latinize the Turkic languages of the former USSR, and, according to the interested groups in Turkey, this should contribute to further strengthening of Turkish influence in the culture of Turkic-speaking peoples.
The point is that the pan-Turkist circles expect to move from a single alphabet to a single language, and then to a single national community and, ultimately, to the creation of a single state in which Turkey will play a dominant role. This is where the so-called Centers of Turkish Culture created by the Yunus Emre Foundation appear, playing a major role in promoting the ideas of neo-Ottomanism and pan-Turkism. The centers were initiated by the then President of the Republic of Turkey Abdullah Gül.
        In centers established in different countries, the ideas of neo-Ottomanism are being promoted under the guise of educational activities, and instruments of soft power are being created to advance the imperialist and nationalist designs of the Turkish bourgeoisie. For example, during the opening of one of such centers, the President Abdullah Gül, who was personally present, noted that the Yunus Emre Centers of Turkish Culture are the “invisible” power of Turkey.

A while ago, even in Russia two such centers, in Moscow and in Kazan, were established. The Kazan Center was opened on September 28, 2012. Mr. Ihsan Demirbas, a Turkish national, was the Director of the Center. The Kazan Center was formally closed in 2016. However, it seems that the Kazan Center just went underground and, actually, keeps pushing the ideas of neo-Ottomanism forward among the Turkic peoples of the Volga Region of Russia. It gives seminars and lectures, and even invites foreign teachers, actively making use of the modern online technologies. Even in April-May 2020, in the context of a global pandemic, there was an attempt to hold a Turkish holiday with a large-scale involvement of Tatarstan’s children.

Today, the Turkish imperialism overtly competes for dominance on the territory of the former USSR and uses various ways for this – from soft to quite real, military force.

Turkey openly assumes the role of the hegemon of the post-Soviet territory, the consolidator of all Turkic peoples. It uses the escalation of the economic, political and interethnic situation in the post-Soviet territory. The capitalist circles of Turkey, by inertia, are looking for opportunities to solve domestic problems through the expansion of markets and impact on their immediate neighbors.

In these difficult conditions, the position of the Turkish communists is worthy of the special respect. They run a well thought out campaign to educate the locals, openly expose the imperialist endeavors of the national bourgeoisie and the ways it uses.

In recent years, the Communist Party of Turkey has gained its political power and strengthened its position among members of the working class.

At the same time, it is plain to see that the party faced the increased pressure from the ruling circles. The repressions affected even the General Secretary of the party, Kemal Okuyan, who was arrested under the contrived pretext of insulting President Erdogan. There are known facts of attacks on participants of party events by armed groups.

And still, despite all attempts to suspend the Communist Party of Turkey from local elections (in 2019), for the first time in the country's history, a communist became mayor of a major city.

For the local elites, the victory of the Communist candidate came out of the blue; it was not expected even hypothetically. All these facts make it clear that while the general crisis of capitalism escalates, social contradictions aggravate and international tension intensifies, more and more people begin to see that only a system based on equality and justice is an alternative to the present context. The demand for the leftism is growing all over the world.

Imperialism has no borders. The communist parties, primarily of the former USSR, should strongly retaliate against the attempts to implant bourgeois ideology in any form, which undoubtedly includes neo-Ottomanism and pan-Turkism.

Only through joint efforts of the Communist and Workers' parties, their active counter-narratives, we are able to stop the attempts to turn the post-Soviet territory into a zone of interethnic conflicts.

Kazan’ City Committee of the CPRF