You suggested considering the possibility of Russia’s participation in the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS). Let us first recall the historical events associated with the Russian Empire, which gradually expanded its borders through wars of conquest.
This is about the conquest of the Kazan, Astrakhan and other Tatar khanates (16th century), followed by the conquest of other Turkic states. The military campaigns of Ivan the Terrible were accompanied by fierce resistance and destruction; they laid the foundation for the subsequent conquest of the Volga region, Central Asia, Siberia and the Caucasus territories inhabited by Turkic and other peoples.
Russian military campaigns in the Caucasus and Central Asia (18th-19th centuries) covering the lands of modern Kazakhstan, Central Asia (Kokand and Khiva Khanates, Bukhara Emirate) and the North Caucasus were most often accompanied by bloody wars, suppression of local uprisings, suppression of local uprisings by Moscow.
In the Soviet era, an artificially created famine – organised by Moscow – claimed the lives of approximately ten million Turks and representatives of other ethnic groups in Central Asia and the Volga region. For all these wars of conquest and artificially caused famines, the Russian authorities must repent before the Turkic peoples.
The Russian Empire continues to use Turkic peoples to capture neighbouring states today: according to the Ukrainian state project “I Want to Live”, as of 1 October 2026, Russia has recruited 20,437 citizens from five Central Asian countries to participate in the war against Ukraine (which is approximately 44.5% of the total).
More than two million Turkic Uyghurs are held in Chinese concentration camps; as you know, Russia and China are close allies, and neither you, Tokayev, nor Putin will ever raise this issue – namely, the issue of the genocide of the Turkic people in China. The same situation exists for the Crimean Tatar people: their representatives, along with other Turkic people, are held in Putin’s prisons.
We must unite all Turkic peoples for our own defense instead of serving the aggressor states – Russia and China – which are hostile towards the Turkic peoples. Today, we need to promote the concept of “Greater Turan” as a military-political bloc of Turkic states led by Turkey.
Sincerely,
Rafis Kashapov – Prime Minister of the government-in-exile of independent Tatarstan, member of the Presidium of the WTOC, participant of the Forum of Free Peoples of Post-Russia, member of the Congress of the Autochthonous Peoples of Eurasia, activist of the “Group of Free Peoples” and co-founder of the “Free Idel-Ural” movement.
Tatarstan – Great Britain.
