ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Central Asia region of prominence for both Turkey and Russia in the post-Cold War period. One of the early foreign policy instruments of Turkey toward Central Asia was the foundation of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) in January 1992. Another tool Turkey used to position itself as a powerful and effective player in Central Asia has been the convening of Turkic summits since 1992 with the participation of Azerbaijan and Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The economic cooperation organization (ECO) is a regional cooperation mechanism which brings Turkey and Central Asian states together along with Azerbaijan, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The fever of rivalry between Turkey and Russia in Central Asia subsided largely at the beginning of the 2000s following Turkey's acknowledgement that it did not have the requisite political, economic and military potency to overpower Moscow in the region.
