Many Russian analysts are dismissive of Turkey’s talk about the formation of a transnational cultural community called “Greater Turan.” They do not believe such a notion will really attract Azerbaijanis let alone Central Asians, not to speak of the Turkic peoples living in the Russian Federation. But Kamran Gasanov of Moscow’s Friendship of the Peoples University argues that this longstanding Turkish idea is every bit as powerful among Turkic peoples as the Russian World is among Russians. Unfortunately, he insists, the flippant Russian attitudes, expressed most forcefully in recent times by Valdai Club political analyst Farkhad Ibragimov, ignore the fact that while Greater Turan in some ways is, indeed, nebulous and undefined, that lack of clarity is a source of its strength as an identity around which not only the Turks of the world but other related peoples can coalesce (Svobodnaya Pressa, July 1).
Moscow Fears Ankara’s Greater Turan Ideas Threaten Russia Abroad and at Home – Jamestown
