Mid Theme Visit: Country Links - Turkey and Uzbekistan

 

Mid-Theme Visit: Country Links

Turkey and Uzbekistan

Hello, and I hope you have fun reading this Country Links article. This article is different from the others in the sense of it is more recent than any other topic we have covered, and the theme is very stronger. By this, I mean we are again visiting communism in the 20^th century. This time however, we are viewing the eastern portion of the Soviet Union, in Central Asia.

With this switch in geography, there also needs to be an explanation regarding the tumultuous political switches between 1918 and 1939, therefore we will explore the context of this article. As brought up in my last article Country Links: Norway and Hungary, which is available on my blog, the interwar period, between the First and Second World Wars was a chaotic time with dramatically contrasting political, social, and economic situations to before the First World War, starting in 1914, and the end of the Second World War, ending in 1945. Along with the Great Depression that economically brought many nations to their knees, there were also literally revolutionary changes in governance of states.

An infamous example of this, which will be a huge part of this article journey, was the United Soviet’s Social Republic, or USSR, more commonly known to the world as the Soviet Union, or simply, the Soviets. In 1917, the year before the First World War came to a history changing close, Russia erupted in the form of the Bolshevik revolution, the second revolution Russia experience – the first occurring just over a decade before in 1905. Although the 1905 incident was enough at the time to put Russia’s people under the illusion of satisfaction with sufficient political representation and life improvement, the Romanovs, the Russian imperial royal family’s luck came to a grinding holt.

After almost quarter of a century on the throne, tsar Nikolay’s (or Nicholas) II’s days of excessive and extravagant living at the expense of Russia’s commoners came to an end, as he was pressured into abdication and executed the following year. Following these actions, a new regime that would characterise almost the entire 20^th century got swiftly underway. Ushering in their communist state of maximum government industrial control, in an attempt to prevent the financial dominance of tiny number of people again, Russia did not restrict themselves to their own lands. They spread to almost all of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, many in the 1920s, but many in the 1940s too, taking advantage of their vulnerable positions in the havoc of sudden warfare.

The Russians viewed this as reclaiming lost territories, starting with Belarus in 1918, and notably Ukraine in 1922. Interestingly though, over a millennium before, the lands that would become much of West Central Russia, Belarus and Ukraine were the joined state of Kievan Rus. You can read more about that in another article on my blog, Marking History - Norse Expansion: Raid to Trade. But back to the 1900s, Uzbekistan, being part of Central Asia was included in this takeover in 1924, while under ruler Faizulla Khojayev, who had attained power earlier that decade. Uzbekistan was then combined with Tajikistan, further southeast.

However, Soviet rule came with economic and social disadvantages. With the USSR fully controlling economic activities, Uzbekistan was unable to exercise its usual effectiveness in industries such as agriculture, depriving it of normal economic gain. This was due failing systems left unaddressed in all Soviet states. Education for Jewish people was also heavily restricted.

As for Turkey, its early 1900s consisted of the fall of the Ottoman empire for political and military reasons at the end of the First World War, culminating in Sultan Mehmed VI in 1922 being overthrown by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of Turkey’s republic. Turkey experienced horrific conflict and economic problems over the course of the 1900s. However, despite this, it still saw huge benefit in supporting Uzbekistan, being in the middle of Central Asia in the 1990s. This was when Uzbekistan had just escaped from the USSR upon it falling in 1991 when Gorbachev allowed democracy back in through elections, limiting state control.

Regarding Turkish help, specifically, Turkey supported Uzbek people in learning, Turkey 2,000 scholarships to students from Uzbekistan for studying in Turkey, aiding in recovery of some of the educational limitations some Uzbek people had experienced under the Soviet regime. Also, for aiding Uzbek economic progression, Turkey gave Uzbekistan $700 million, amounting to over $1.6 billion now.

It is important, therefore, to remember here that there was, in a way, a triple link between Turkey and Uzbekistan. This was as Turkey, financially, economically, and educationally aided Uzbekistan by paying for it to economically get back on its feet and providing opportunities for Uzbek people they otherwise would not have access to.