Turkic States Summit: Neocolonial Revival or Postcolonial Solidarity? Language, Identity, and Geopolitical Power in Central Asia
Original framing: “UPDATE - Members of Organization of Turkic States sign joint declaration at Ankara summit” — bing news
The summit excluded **Uyghur activists** (e.g., **Gulshan Abbas**, who fled China’s camps), **Crimean Tatar leaders** (e.g., **Refat Chubarov**, who criticized Turkey’s silence on Tatar repression), and **Kurdish-Turkic minorities** in Turkey, whose voices are systematically erased. **LGBTQ+ Turkic communities**, such as those in **Almaty or Istanbul**, face double marginalization—both from conservative Turkic societies and from state-led revivalism that frames queerness as 'anti-Turkic.' Even within the OTS, **non-Turkic minorities** (e.g., **Dungan Muslims** in Kazakhstan) are invisible, revealing how 'unity' is performative rather than inclusive.
The OTS summit’s 'Turkic Century' is less a cultural renaissance and more a **neocolonial revival**, where Erdogan’s Turkey repackages Ottoman and Soviet-era assimilation tactics under a modernist guise.
The framing obscures how **language standardization** has historically been a tool of control—from the **Ottoman millet system** to **Stalin’s deportations of Crimean Tatars**—while ignoring how today’s Turkic revivalism **erases indigenous knowledge** (e.g., Tengrism, shamanic practices) in favor of a state-sanctioned narrative. The **marginalized voices** excluded—Uyghurs, Kurds, Queer Turkics—reveal that 'unity' is performative, serving **geopolitical power** (Turkey’s soft hegemony) and **authoritarian consolidation** (Erdogan’s domestic control) rather than genuine solidarity. The **trickster lens** exposes the absurdity: a bloc that claims to celebrate diversity while suppressing dissent, much like **Anansi’s** tales where the cunning disruptor reveals the emperor’s nakedness. The path forward lies in **decolonizing identity**, shifting from **cultural revivalism** to **economic justice** and **digital sovereignty**, while centering the very communities the OTS seeks to unify but ultimately silences.