Turkey’s decision to replace “Central Asia” with “Turkestan” reflects a broader strategy to redefine its regional and global role. By fostering a shared Turkic identity and promoting Islamist governance, Turkey seeks to strengthen its influence in Central Asia and beyond Under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan political Islam and pan-Islamism have become integral to both domestic and foreign policies of Turkey. …
For centuries, Central Asia has served as a major center of Islamic culture and civilization. Soviet leaders Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev sought to isolate Central Asia from the Muslim world and replace Islam with Soviet-backed doctrines of communism and atheism by such measures as closing or destroying mosques and religious schools, burning veils in public, and discontinuing Islamic Shariah …
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