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The Heartland
Turkestan and the wider world: A Grand Strategy Review
Alash Orda
Our northern Turkic neighbour. The kingdom in the north ruled by the Kazakh majority who have
rebelled against the last bear king of Romanov, just as the Sultan did with his thousand spears
and arrows. However, the union between the two did not transpire, like the moon and the sun – one
kept chasing and courting the other.
The northern Turkic state is infested with deceitful Slavs and Moscovite sympathisers; like puss on
a wound, corrupting the body and mind of their sultan, refusing to let nature mend the divide
between the two kingdoms clean. Thus, the north refuses the fruits and shade of the pan-Turanian
tree that is growing strong, roots and leaves, within the halls of the Sultan's palace.
Priority: The unification of all the Turks in Central Asia is of utmost importance. Turkestan will
remain forever weak without its northern half. This northern kingdom has the substantial
population that will accept the rule of Turkic Bukhara.
Russia
The empire of ice and steel that chains and whips its million slave-nations. Indeed, the wild cold
fangs of the beast bit through every direction: east, west, and south! Not until the dreaded thing
was blinded by the black eagle in the west, cutting its claws and snaps its teeth in. The bear
kingdom lies in defeat and chaos. The empire stumbled and new nations rose. The tsar is no more.
Parliamentarism won over disorder
The new Russia stands at the brink. With the death of their leader, the left hand rise - fist in the air.
Only they, and they only, can determine if they wish to bring the misery of empire that the old tsars
once did to its many former subjects. For Turkestan, they are the hated enemy, but there is no urgent
need to call the swords of the Ghazis.
Priority: Russia is a very difficult neighbour to judge. They are not a top priority, neither can be
conquered that easily. However, leaving them alone would empower them, and leave us at
a disadvantage. Especially, if we wish to liberate our Turkic brothers still under Russian rule.
Persia
The Shia Lion prowls in the hintherlands of the south-west. It is a kingdom untouched by
the infidels' war in the west. With the cowering of the bear, the "Franks" of London coils its filthy
tentacles around the limbs of the mindless apostates. Like dirt, they made themselves puppets of
the heathens. Now Persia stood defiant against the two Turkic kingdoms to the west and east,
wishing destruction to our fates. Like a barrier between two seas, they shall crumble at the weight of
our warrios from left and right; and we shall met in the centre – both Turkic brothers unite.
Priority: Persia is not a target for its lands, but it is a strategically vital country required to reach
the Ottoman Empire. The conquest must to be done despite its Shia population. To make
the effects more permanent, the Shia heresy must be purge and the lands in between the two
kingdoms shall be populated by Turks.
Afghanistan
A mountain wall that separates the Empire of the Russians in the north and the Empire of
the British in the south. As fellow brothers of the faith, we have no misgivings to them. As two
kingdoms with borders unquestioned, we have no qualms to them. To our great joy, the warriors
of the mountain kingdom even vanquished and pushed back the British infidels until they feel
the caress of the Indus and relish on its bountifulness.
Priority: As mentioned, we have no reason to fight our brothers of the faith. For as long as they
recognise our Sultan as the rightful and true Caliph of the faithful, and they allow us to pass through
for our noble Ghazis to fight the putrid polytheists and British sympathisers in Hindustan, we have
no reason to invade them.
Delhi
God is great! The wicked empire of the British has shaken a decades past, and it continues to shrink,
like a coward facing a just man. The evilness that was (and still) corrupting the good souls
of Muslims (and everyone else) where ever they land; it is no longer what it once was. The darkness
recedes as the dawn awakes at the night's end.
Today, the polytheists of India, headed by a traitor who bows to the men in red and khaki, are licking
their wounds. They shall return - it is known - like pestilence that returns every harvest. They shall
break their camps and march to the lands of the faithful. There, they will met their end, under
the swords of our warriors. God willing.
Priority: Delhi is not a threat at the moment, but it is potentially dangerous. What made Delhi
dangerous is that it is a princely state under control by the British Empire. If the British manage
to reunify and reassert their authority in the subcontinent, the British has now the freedom
to intervene in the region and jeopardise our goals.
Xibei Lianbang
A land known as “East Turkestan”. The third brother who was lost and was found. The joy of
escaping from the effeminated eunuch kingdom of the Qing brought tears onto the eyes of the Turks,
watering the fields and soon harvest their freedom. The “Hui” people, as the eunuchs call them, shall
serve as our gate and guide to the east, where Timur Khagan once dreamt of conquering.
Priority: Another Turkic kingdom to unify. It is secondary in importance compare to Alash Orda.
The location is not as rich and populous as the Kazakh state. They are high in the order of urgency
as the state is weak and is a natural prey to the expansionist Mongolia and a resurgent China.
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An Overview of “the War of the Four Nations, by Enver Pasha”; reviewed by Prof. George Bayard, University of Paris
A book that was written for Sultan Alim of Bukhara and his court. Like Machiavelli, who wrote
“the Prince” to gain the favour of the ruler of Florence. [Enver Pasha] wrote this book to gain allies in
his court and the military, and, of course, gain the interest of the Sultan on expanding his kingdom.
It is a highly controversial material even in the Sultan's court. Enver dreams of a Turanian World,
headed by a unified Turkestani Empire and her Turanian allies. The extent of his aspirations
is mind-boggling, even to the point of ridicule - and he was, indeed, ridiculed. Regardless, it awoken
the expansionist wing of the royal court. Many members of the court and the army could speak out
loud of war and expansion after the spread of the book.
The premise of the book was primarily a general plan on what Turkestan should do to achieve
the domination of the Eurasian continent. Using MacKinder's Heartland theory as the foundation,
the book explores the contenders who has the capability to control the heartland. By defeating all of
its contenders, one can control the Eurasian super-continent – the 'Heartland'. By controlling
the Heartland, one becomes the master of the world.
He explained, with some exceptions, that no land power in Eurasia became the ruler of the world, due
to the fact that other land powers kept each other at check; thus, only a few manage to control
the Heartland. [Enver] has argued that only “the defeat of the other three contenders, can the winner
bring complete control of the World Island”. There are four main contender nations in the book.
These four nations are: the Hans, the Rus, the Hindis and the Turks. The terms are very archaic,
thus I shall use their proper demonym: Chinese, Russian, Indian, and Turkestani – respectively.
The Chinese were perceived as the second potentially strongest, due to their harmonious national
identity, and their varied but irrelevant religious differences. They are currently seen as a capable
regional power, but the conclusion ends with the Han Chinese to be a low-risk threat as the author
offers the argument that China won't expand to Turkestani lands, due to the division in the homeland.
The invasion of Japan in the north-east and the breakdown of authority throughout the empire, made
the expansion to the west unlikely.
Therefore, there's no desire to go to war against Turkestan, at the moment.
The Russians are perceived as the potentially strongest nation. Another empire that is dominated by
a relatively homogeneous group. The fact that the Russians once spans an empire towards the Pacific,
the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and Manchuria, that made them more dangerous than China.
They boast a network of cities throughout Siberia, and has the most modern and one of the largest
armies in the area. The desire to restore their empire is very strong, so expansion to Central
and East Asia is very likely to happen.
The Indians are perceived as the weakest. They have historically been divided and diverse.
They are divided into three factions that can drag their civil wars into a stalemate. They also have
their religious differences, with a bloody recent history. They are furthest away from the Heartland.
They are, however, included as it was argued that the Indians are powerful enough to control
the Heartland, due to their enormous population and rich cultural history, and that they impose
a threat to any Turkestani or Chinese hegemony.
One should also take note that there are other nations included in the book that didn't make into
the list of contenders, such as the Persians and the Arabs. The book mentioned that despite
the vastness of the ancient Persian Empires, they did not have the population to stand up against
Russian or Turkestani hegemony. The Arabs have a wide geographic area, but they are too far away
to impose their domination on the Heartland.
The fourth and last section was about the Turkestani themselves. The author stated that
the Turkestanis are demographically challenged. What is not mentioned is that they are also
the least industrialised and the most technologically backward out of the four. The author then
mentioned that the great advantage is that they are geographically suited, as they are located right
in the centre of the Heartland. The author even claims that MacKinder's "Pivot Area" are all Turkic
lands. The ability to project power to the other three contenders is significant due to its central
location. Thus, the required logistics to subdue and dominate the other contenders is easier than
the other three.
The book heavily advise that the submission or neutralisation of the other contenders is the only way
for a land power to control the Heartland. It has used the Mongol Empire as the prime example,
as it subdued China and Russia, and kept India from seriously threatening their southern flank.
Even with the Mongol defeat in Ain Jalut, the Mamluks did not threaten the Mongol hegemony of Asia.
The book is of significant value as it gives us a great insight on the policies and doctrines
of the Turkestani Empire. Using this book and his other one, "About the Turanian Race", gives us
an understanding of the mindset of the successors of [Enver Pasha]. The more we learn from them,
the more effective it is to combat them.
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Useless info: this author thinks that the Heartland theory is bunk.
