Pan Turkism -2-

In research literature, "pan-Turkism" is used to describe the political, cultural and ethnic unity of all Turkic-speaking people.

Proponents use the latter as a point of comparison, since "Turkic" is more a linguistic and cultural distinction than a racial or ethnic description. This differentiates it from "Turkish", which is an ethnic term for people primarily residing in Turkey. Pan-Turkic ideas and reunification movements have been popular since the collapse of the Soviet Union in Central Asian and other Turkic countries.

Photo: Countries and regions where a Turkic language has official status

Flag of the Turkic Council

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Pan Turkism

Pan Turkism is a movement which emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals of Azerbaijan and the Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey), with its aim the cultural and political unification of all Turkic peoples.

Turanism is a closely related movement but a more general term than Turkism, since Turkism applies only to Turkic peoples. However, researchers and politicians in Turkic ideology have used these terms interchangeably in many sources and literature. Although the Turkic peoples share historical, cultural and linguistic roots, the rise of a pan-Turkic political movement is a phenomenon of the 19th and 20th centuries and was in part a response to the development of Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism in Europe and inspired Pan-Iranism in Asia. Ziya Gökalp defined pan-Turkism as a cultural, academic, and philosophical and political concept advocating the unity and freedom of Turkic peoples.

Photo: Distribution of the Turkic peoples

Hocalı Katliamı: Ermeni Terörü (Xocalı soyqırımı) VİDEO