ABSTRACT
P rior to the end of the Cold War there were few direct links between Turkey and Soviet Central Asia. 1 This period of economic, social, cultural and political isolation stretched back some seven decades, thereby, for practical purposes, surpassing living memory. During this period all political communication was conducted with Moscow, as the centre of the Soviet state. Issues of potential bilateral importance between Turkey and the Central Asian republics were subsumed under those of Ankara-Moscow relations. These, in turn, were far from being complex and wide-ranging. Instead, relations between the two powers were largely reduced to the central strategic preoccupation of East–West bipolar confrontation. Though Turkish–Soviet relations did enjoy periods of relative warmth, and trade began to grow, interaction never transcended this bipolar enmity. Security considerations informed relations in all other domains.
