Abstract:

The Eurasian region is home to diverse ethnicities, including Turkic peoples, whose historical presence has shaped the political landscape. The Caucasus, with its Turkic populations, has faced significant challenges due to wars and subsequent repercussions, impacting ethnic pluralism and nation-building efforts. Local struggles mirror the broader challenges faced by Turkic peoples across Eurasia and the diaspora, underscoring the need for continued efforts to preserve and celebrate their rich cultural heritages in light of assimilation and erasure.

The dominance of Russia and relations with Türkiye have affected many dynamics, with Turkic peoples still being seen as threats to regional sovereignties. Pipeline agreements, trade partnerships, and support from international entities like the European Union and NATO, alongside strengthening relations with China further marginalizes Turks, compelling them to relinquish their identities and assimilate into the prevailing state nationalism. Historical shifts from their semi-nomadic lifestyles and regime changes have profoundly affected Turkic minority rights in the region. Meskhetian Turks, deported during the Soviet era on Stalin's orders, were compelled to abandon their Turkish identity to return home, driven by the geopolitical significance of their location and their situation underscores the geopolitical complexities of their region, particularly in areas like South Western Georgia, where proximity to Armenian populations poses challenges to Georgian control over the region and raises concerns for Georgian sovereignty. The significant Turkish minority in Iran, bordering Azerbaijan and Türkiye influences Iran's political and economic relations towards the Turkic world within the region. The Azerbaijani Turks in Iran exemplify this struggle as they leverage various platforms, including sports, to voice their resistance against cultural erasure, assert their identity and resist assimilation. These experiences resonate across all the Turkic nations from the European and Gagauz Turks, through to the Crimean Turks, the Uygurs, and so on.

This paper is a frank discussion of the experience of long-standing erasure and assimilation of Turkic peoples. The negotiation of Turkic identities in and from the diaspora will focus on the Turks of Crimea, the Caucasus, and Iran. The persistence of racial discourses, segregation, mis-recognition and non-recognition within academia exacerbates the resulting harm to knowledge production, scholars, social cohesion, and most of all, Turkic peoples. Through the academic lenses of the social and political sciences, we aim to address the complexities of the Turkish question in Eurasia, minority rights and the conception of Eurasian ethnicity in the diaspora, and for Turkic peoples in North America.