Soviet Union was a Slavic-Turkic alliance. The Azeris, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and several ethnic groups in Russia all speak Turkic languages. The Turks in Turkey and the Uighurs in China were the only Turkic people on the planet to fall outside of this alliance.
After the US’s missteps in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, Turkey has decided to work with Russia on forging an alliance that would incorporate these Turkic-speaking former-Soviet Republics.
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