TURKIC INTEGRATION: HISTORY OF THE UNDERSTANDING AND INITIATIVES OF ELBASI

Abstract

The attitude to Turkic integration has historical roots and polar opposite vectors. Supporters of integration are, first of all, the Turkic peoples themselves, who even at the genetic level remember the common origin and receive additional impulses of kinship in language, culture, customs and traditions, music. At the other pole are the opponents of integration, which can be conditionally united into a group of countries that have long been frightened by the threat of «Pan-Turkism». In the modern era, especially after the collapse of the USSR and the formation of five independent Turkic States, the idea of Turkic integration has acquired a new meaning. The first President of Kazakhstan from the very first years of his leadership of the country made the idea of Turkic unity one of the key tenets of his foreign policy. In historical retrospect, the first supporter of Turkic integration should be recognized Ismail Gasparaly, the author of the famous slogan: «Tilde, fikirde, işte – birlik» (Unity in language, thoughts and deeds). Gaspirali was also the founder of the current «jadidism», in which one of his points included and a strong impetus to the Turkic integration. An active supporter of Turkic integration and associate Gasparoli was a prominent political activist Salimgerei Zhanturin. He became Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the madrasah «Galia», after he provided patronage assistance in its construction; was one of the organizers of the First all-Russian Congress of Muslims in Nizhny Novgorod in 1905; became one of the founders of the party «Ittifak al-Muslimun»; he was elected Deputy of the First state Duma from this party. Ahmed Bey Agaoglu, Gabdreshit Ibrahimov, Ali-Mardan Bey Topchubashev, Musa Bigeev, Shahihaidar Syrtlanov, Sadri Maksudi and others also played a significant role in Turkic integration in the early XX century under tsarist Russia. Yusuf Akchura first outlined the theoretical basis of Pan-Turkism in his work «Three kinds of politics». Ali Bey Huseynzadeh, who formulated three principles necessary for the survival and progress of the people, later developed his ideas: Turkism, Islamism and Europeanization. In the first years after the October revolution in Russia, the ideas of Turkism for some time actively promoted. In this sense, the First Turkological Congress, held in 1926 in Baku, was of great importance, which played a special role in the fate of turkologists of the 20-30s. On the one hand, it led to the intensive development of language construction, the emergence of a considerable number of Turkic studies. On the other hand, in 1937-38, the delegates of this Congress were repressed in the first place. Among turkologists, Khalid-said Khojayev, Bekir Choban-zadeh, Sanjar Asfendiyarov, Mustafa Shokai, Zaki Validi Togan and others made a special contribution to the Turkic integration. Even before independence, Kazakhstan has taken concrete steps towards rapprochement with the Turkic peoples and these steps are associated with the name of Nursultan Nazarbayev. Thus, in June 1990, the international Turkic Center began its work in Almaty. In his speech at the Second meeting of Heads of Turkic-speaking States in October 1994 in Istanbul, President Nazarbayev draws several important conclusions regarding Turkic integration. First, he insists that various integration associations do not contradict each other, but can and should be combined for the benefit of the development of new independent States. Secondly, he comes to the conclusion about the need for organizational structures for effective integration and cites the activities of TURKSOY as an example. At the initiative of the First President of Kazakhstan, the organizational structures of the Turkic-speaking States were created: the Permanent Secretariat, the cooperation Council of the Turkic States, the parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic countries, the Council of elders, the Turkic Academy.