Sons Of The Conquerors

by Pope, Hugh

• ISBN13: 9781585676415
• ISBN10: 1585676411
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-02
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Summary

The Turkic world can now count some 140 million people worldwide. Turkic-speaking peoples range from ancient populations in Siberia and China, through six states in an arc through central Eurasia to fast-growing new settler communities in western Europe and America. Yet, despite an extraordinary past and strong signs of hope for the future, they remain some of the least studied peoples in the world. Muslims for the most part, they offer readiness to work with the West, access to the new Caspian Sea oil province, and a secular alternative for an Islamic world caught between pressure for change and the reactionary threat of fundamentalism. The most powerful and best-established Turkic nation, Turkey, long hemmed in by its role as a front-line pillar of NATO, has become the most democratic major Muslim country and is now negotiating for full membership of the European Union. After a shaky start, the five Turkic states of the Caucasus and Central Asia set free by the end of the Cold War-Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and the Kyrgyz Republic-are making an independent-minded comeback too.

Table of Contents

MAP	10	(3)
PROLOGUE	13	(10)
SECTION I: SOLDIER NATION
1. ORDERS CUT IRON: The Army's Grip on Turkey	23	(18)
2. INFIDEL PIGS: Conquerors Turn Refugees in the Balkans	41	(9)
3. BLOODY BLACK MOUNTAIN: Azerbaijan's Baptism of Fire	50	(16)
4. MERCHANT WARRIORS: The New Turkish Entrepreneurs Sally Forth	66	(15)
SECTION II: SAVE US, FATHER!
5. RAKI AND THE REPUBLIC: Kemal Ataturk, Icon of the Secular Turkish Revolution	81	(14)
6. THE CULT OF TURKMENBASITY: The Method in Turkmenistan's Mad Tyranny	95	(15)
7. GRAY WOLVES: Nationalists Prevail in Azerbaijan	110	(14)
8. OIL, MINERALS, DEMOCRACY!: A New Khan Finds Riches, but Craves Respect	124	(17)
9. THE GHOST OF ISA BEG: Knight-Errant of Turkestan	141
SECTION III: A LONELY HISTORY
10. THE ANT AND THE ELEPHANT: The Uygur Struggle to Survive China	157	(15)
11. OF YURTS AND YOGURT: The Primordial Turkic Life of the Steppe	172	(16)
12. IRAN AND TURAN: The Age-Old Antagonists of Eurasia	188	(7)
13. BEAR HUG: Breaking Russia's Long Embrace	195	(15)
14. THE GOLDEN APPLE: The Turks Follow their Lucky Star to Germany	210	(11)
15. CURSED SOULS NO MORE: A Turkic Fable in the Backwoods of Virginia	221	(12)
SECTION IV: ISLAM ALLATURCA
16. IN THE LAND OF BABUR: Islam and Central Asia's Struggle For Identity	233	(12)
17. AN EMPIRE OF THE MIND: Turkish Pragmatism Outflanks Iranian theocracy	245	(15)
18. RUMI's LEGACY: The Turks Adopt a Kinder Allah	260	(22)
19. EUROTURKS: A Muslim Island in Holland's Christian Sea	282	(9)
SECTION V: OIL AND WATER
20. HURRICANE HYDROCARBONS: The Caspian Oil Boom	291	(9)
21. WHITE GOLD: A Lust for Cotton Strangles the Aral Sea	300	(12)
22. SILK ROAD SHAKE-DOWNS: Corruption as a Way of life	312	(15)
23. MIDNIGHT ESPRESSO: The Turkic Problem with Human Rights	327	(12)
SECTION VI: THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY IS OURS
24. STEP-SONS OF TAMERLANE: The Grim Determination of Uzbekistan	339	(11)
25. TO THE CITY: The Second Turkish Conquest of Constantinople	350	(11)
26. ALL CHANGE AT ESSEN: Now Germany is Not Enough	361	(8)
27. FOREVER YOUNG TURKS: A New Horizon in America	369	(11)
EPILOGUE	380	(15)
APPENDIX A: A Note on Turkic Languages and Alphabets	395	(6)
APPENDIX B: The Turkic Family Tree	401	(2)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	403	(4)
INDEX	407	(8)
PHOTO CREDITS	415