While knocking on Turan`s Door...

It is well known to our readers that one of the most important and unchanging laws of the market is that the goods that are popular with the customer are also popular among the traders...

Until a few years ago, Turkishness and Turkism were not only a nightmare for the "government man" and the "official elite" revolving around the "axis of power" like “lovers” continuously circumambulating the Kaaba but also met with suspicion and skepticism among our society. Being a Turkist was considered a sign of backwardness, almost as much as being an Islamist. However, the "brotherhood" of official Baku and Ankara in recent years and the apparent military success that has taken root on this ground have caused many of our people to have a glimmer of hope in their hearts, which are colder than a cold barbecue pit... And again, like the goods that are popular in the market, the "songs of Turkism" and the signs of the Grey Wolf began to appear and spread rapidly in the political market. However, it is impossible not to see the increase in the number of people walking around with the sign of the Grey Wolf without knowing what the Grey Wolf is, or people talking about Turan without knowing what Turan is.

Why not Turkism, but Turanism?

However named or described, it is impossible to distinguish between Turk and Turan, and when you say "Turk", you mean "Turan", and when you say "Turan", you mean "Turk". But there is some difference between them, because "Turk" is a race, a mass of people, and "Turan" is a field, a territory...

After more than a thousand years of Turkish-Islamic diffusion, in the new era, in the 19th century, when the energy of traditional Islam was exhausted, the commitment of Turks to Islam began to weaken rapidly, as Islam could no longer hold it in its arms. And, like a baby falling from the arms of an old man who fell into a deep sleep, a Turk who was "stripped" of Islam began to see pre-Islamic Turkism in himself when he took off the aba of Islam because it was his pre-Islamic culture. Of course, it was Turkological research in Europe and Russia that accelerated this process. With the annexation of some Turkic lands to Russia and the influence of Western culture on others, these studies appeared on the table of the Turkish reader, were read, and caused a serious intellectual shock. As the long-forgotten Bozkurts (Grey Wolves), Turanians, shamans, runic inscriptions, and ancient khagans, who were replaced by Islamic heroes, are included in the lexicon of the new Turks, they have been revived and begun to look for a place in the life of the Turks.

It was at this point that the Turkish nationalist, who chose nationalism and even racism as his motto, made the first serious mistake. Instead of Turan, which has the ability to embrace and accept all nations and religions as a territory and cultural heritage, he chose Turkism, which expresses attachment to only one people, one tribe, started "pure blood" talks, and thus offended other nations, drew a line between himself and other nations, made small ethnic groups who did not consider themselves Turks enemies of the nation and the state.

In the Russian Empire, the birthplace of Turkism, the talk of "pure blood" could have some meaning. Because the ruling nation was not a Turk, it was even an enemy of the Turks. However, in a country of Turkish origin, such as the Ottoman Empire, we did not think there was a need for such a racist position. On the contrary, it was necessary to continue the international policy of the Ottomans. Because the state was already a Turkish state.

Of course, there were objective reasons for the racism of the Turkists in the Ottomans. This was mainly due to the "fashion" of national statehood that spread in Europe in the 19th century. Under the influence of this trend, many Ottoman nations (including Muslims, such as the Arabs!) began the process of building their own nation-states and, in the simplest terms, betrayed the Ottomans and their state. When this tragedy, seen everywhere from Macedonia to Arabia, coincided with World War I, the realization of the strategic importance of oil, and the beginning of the Israelis' plan to rebuild ancient Israel, the Ottoman Empire began to disintegrate rapidly, and the Turkish intelligentsia, helpless in the face of this event, hated the nations that had betrayed the Ottomans and resorted to Turkish racism. However, shortly after the new Turkish state that emerged as a republic regained its national independence, instead of abandoning racism because it had lost its significance, the Turkish nationalists continued on that path, thus unknowingly leading to the internal division of Turkey.

The author thinks that a similar mistake was made by the Azerbaijani intelligentsia as well. Two centuries of national slavery created a very deep national longing in the Azerbaijani Turks. In particular, the division of the national intelligentsia and nomenclature into two parts, Russian-speaking and Azerbaijani-speaking, during the Soviet era, as well as the fact that Baku was separated from the rest of Azerbaijan by a barrier and turned into a kind of closed zone against its own nation, treating non-Russian speakers as second-class citizens and openly insulting them, Armenian separatism and racism beginning in the late 1980s... All these factors have begun to push the Azerbaijani intelligentsia out of soft cultural Turkism and into a resolute and sharp racist path and have made some representatives of the remaining peoples of Azerbaijan hostile to the Azerbaijani Turks.

In modern times, we have a national Turkish state, albeit an average one. Everyone who knows the history of Azerbaijan is well aware that our state is Turkish, regardless of the nationality of the ruling class. Our millennial tradition of statehood is Turkish. Our state language is Turkish. The vast majority of our population is, again, Turkish. Therefore, we must give up the racism that was formed during the period of resentment of Soviet Azerbaijan, and for the sake of the great future of our national state, we must follow the path of a more soft and cultural Turkism, or rather the path of Turanism. Because Turan, while preserving his Turkish nature, always accepted everyone it trusted as its children, valued people for their personal qualities, did not look at their hair colors or slanted eyes. That is why it is possible to come across all types of people among the Turkic tribes and clans!

At the same time, it is possible to think that Turanism is an evolutionary state of Turkism. Because in order to be able to move from the mentality of tribalism and nepotism to the consciousness of a single nation, it is necessary to move from tribalism-based Turkism to national and cultural unity, to Turanism based on Motherland and State unity. The other two aspects of this issue are related to economics and politics. So, the fact that the Turks have been divided into tribes and clans for centuries has to do with economics and politics. Because each tribe and clan had its own pastures and meadows, its own wintering grounds and migration routes. These were once a treasure given to them by some rulers and inherited from their ancestors. In order to protect this wealth and prevent it from falling into the hands of others, these units (tribes and clans) had to protect their independence and not mix with other tribes. The political aspect is that since each tribe had its own leader (khan and bey) and that leadership position was usually passed from father to son, the division of the nation into separate tribes and tribal alliances was a guarantee of protection of their power by these khans and beys... In the new era, the unification of the nation is one of the necessary conditions for at least a joint resistance to a foreign enemy. In order not to lose and divide the Motherland and the State, it is necessary to save the nation from tribalism and nepotism, as well as from the hand-made "departmental khans" of the new era. This is a vital issue. In order to solve this issue, it is necessary to unite the nation not on the basis of tribes and regions, but on the principle of a single Motherland. If the Motherland is Turan, the name and essence of this policy should be Turanism.

Some practical issues

The intensification of Azerbaijani-Turkish cooperation in the near future seems more real than the sudden unification of all Turkic countries. Because instead of trying to solve such a huge problem all at once, it is better to divide it into several stages. It is at this point that Azerbaijan-Turkey cooperation can lay the groundwork for facilitating the next stages.

What are the challenges facing Azerbaijan in this direction?

• The fact that Turkey is under the control of NATO and Azerbaijan is under the control of Russia inevitably overshadows and complicates this process of cooperation;
• Different levels of development between Turkey and Azerbaijan in different areas and the fact that Turkey is a larger and more experienced state may result in Azerbaijan becoming dependent on Turkey, or even being assimilated and absorbed by Turkey over time;
• While some political groups in Turkey (such as the MHP) are in favor of this cooperation, there may be those who do not want it (in terms of Azerbaijan’s being too burdensome for Turkey or negatively affecting Turkey's relations with Russia and Iran);
• Azerbaijan's determination to protect its independence may lead Turkey to distance itself from Azerbaijan and, in some cases, pursue a foreign policy against it;
• In order for Azerbaijan not to lose its independence before Turkey, the Azerbaijani national bourgeoisie must be revived as a matter of urgency; to this end, a unified society of businessmen under the auspices of the state, but free from state interference, should be established; general meetings, conferences, and discussions should be held at least once every six months; they should be given special privileges (such as tax exemptions), albeit temporary; negative situations, such as bribery, must be prevented in the most ruthless and rapid manner. For the same purpose, all necessary measures must be taken for the development of national education and culture. A certain area should be set aside for the activities of Turkish businessmen in Azerbaijan (for example, 30-40% of the national industry) and that area should not be interfered with unless necessary;
• Differences in legislation, governance institutions, and office administration culture between the two countries should be kept to a minimum. Using the experience of the European Union, the theoretical and practical foundations of all-Turkic legislation should be laid and the legal terminology should be regulated so that the same normative documents are understood in the same way in all Turkic countries from Istanbul to Astana (similar activities should be done to establish a single calendar);
• Urgent measures must be taken to unite the elites of Azerbaijan and Turkey, especially those working in the field of culture and science, to establish a single scientific terminology, and to establish an International Turan Academy in Baku.

For the normal development of Azerbaijani-Turkish relations, special scientific and methodological activity groups should be established and kept away from the activities and competition of political parties. Because all ideological systems usually collapse with internal blows. Because as ideas flourish, ideological systems that work like a mill day and night and bring "bread" become the greed of careerists and greedy people. As the number of these insincere, self-centered people increases, the number of sincere people decreases, and one day or night, the "mill" burns to ashes. We once saw these fires in Elchibey's "mill"...

The "mill" of the near future, inshallah, will work better.

In short, Turan's biggest practical issue is the rejection of the small "things" that erode its "Tree of Life" from within! It is the disallowance of unchecked people to enter! It is the rejection of any gossiper and "market broker" from the door with a Turkish kick! This is not demagoguery, this is the truth! It is an integral part of political reality and political activity.

Farid Baghirli,
Writer, theologian