On November 12, a group comprising Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan agreed to create the Organization of Turkic States.
It is an organization that was nearly 30 years in the making and founded on their common heritage.
In recent years Turkey has been pushing for this group to consolidate further and transform itself from just an organization focusing on cultural and linguistic affinities.
Turkey's role in Central Asia has been waxing lately after visits from a series of top officials to Central Asia.
Turkey's role globally has also been increasing, so it is little wonder that Ankara is putting a new focus on Central Asia and that the Turkic states of Central Asia are welcoming the upgrade in ties with an ascendant Turkey.
On this week's Majlis Podcast, RFE/RL's media-relations manager, Muhammad Tahir, moderates a discussion on the growing ties between Turkey and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
This week's guests are: from Italy, Eleonora Tafuro Ambrosetti, a research fellow of the Russia, Caucasus, and Central Asia Center at the Institute for International Political Studies; from Istanbul, Mirsaid Khabibullaev, who is currently the chief editor of TRT Russia, the Russian unit of Turkish Television TRT in Istanbul; from Washington, Luke Coffey, director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.
Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.
