ABSTRACT
Turkey is one of the regional actors with ambitions to influence regional developments in Eurasia, which is geographically a very large land mass between Eastern Europe and China. The Eurasian region, where the Slavic cultures from Europe and Turkic cultures from Asia interacted with one another very closely, is composed of the predominantly Slavic-populated Black Sea sub-region and the predominantly Turkic-populated Central Asia sub-region. Turkey’s ambitious policy towards this huge region and its dream of becoming a major regional power has been largely guided by the assumption that its socio-cultural and economic ties to Turkic communities in Eurasia could be translated into Ankara’s regional diplomatic influence, particularly in the predominantly Turkic-populated Central Asian sub-region of Eurasia. However, Turkey’s attempts at developing its cultural and economic ties with the countries in the Eurasian region have not produced Ankara’s intended outcomes fully so far. In fact, Turkey is not considered by other regional actors as a major player in Eurasia. Likewise, Ankara is not a global power that could shape the developments in Eurasia. Nevertheless, it seems to be playing a regional role in Eurasia as a medium-sized regional soft power.
