Turan Research Center

We’re live! The Turan Research Center is proud to launch our new website: turancenter.org We focus on the shifting geopolitics of Eurasia—from the Caspian to Central Asia and the Caucasus. Check out our latest insights and meet the team. #Eurasia #Geopolitics #TuranCenter #ForeignPolicy

A US president and a Central Asian leader now talk the way close partners do. That's new. My latest for @TheNatlInterest: eight months that rearranged the US-Kazakh relationship: the Abraham Accords, $17B in deals, the largest undeveloped tungsten resource on earth. Why this cycle of American attention may be different from the last four: nationalinterest.org/blog/silk-road…

In my latest writing I look at how China is is expanding its engagement with Central Asia amid the war in the Middle East.

Uzbekistan’s first World Cup ended with three defeats. But qualification was not a miracle. It was built through youth titles, players developing abroad, state investment, and a long attempt to overcome the failures inherited from Soviet and post-Soviet football. Watch the full video: youtu.be/NUsdsQ7HTGE Read the analysis by Joseph Epstein for Turan Research Center: turancenter.org/analysis/uzbek… #Uzbekistan #WorldCup2026 #CentralAsia

Kazakhstan's new constitution just took effect. My take for @dknewskz: For 30 years, Central Asia's problem wasn't weak leaders — it was the absence of predictable rules for transferring power. Bringing back the vice presidency writes a real succession mechanism into the constitution for the first time in the region's modern history. It shifts the guarantee of stability off one person and onto an institution. dknews.kz/ru/politika/39…

Everyone's watching the US–Iran negotiations for what they mean in the Middle East. @bako_kheladze explains how 3 countries next door: Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaija, have just as much riding on the outcome. Read here: turancenter.org/analysis/iran-…

With all the propaganda coming out of Islamic Republic this is a very important breakdown of their LEGO videos: youtu.be/SrIywnI0lmc?si…

@ThirdLantern and @TuranCenter recently exposed some of the agents behind the AI lego videos and their connections to the Iranian 🇮🇷 regime, including: -M. Taha Ansari Mohseri, who RRM Canada discovered was/is part of Saeed Jalili's social media team (Jalili is a member of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council); Third Lantern linked him to Iranian Media Literacy Club (linked to the Basij and IRIB) -Maziar Rostampour, identified on Iranian state media outlet Mehr News; executive member of the 14th Ammar People's Film Festival (2024) -Seyed Mehdi Hashemi, linked to Maziar Rostampour -IG handle @ mianjism2 youtube.com/watch?v=SrIywn…

NATO’s second-largest military is openly musing about war with Israel, and Washington is treating it as background noise. In @Newsweek, I lay out the two assets the US isn’t using to stop it: leverage over Ankara (GE engines, the F-35) tied to de-escalation, and Azerbaijan’s trust in both capitals. Trump holds the inducements; Baku holds the trust. newsweek.com/how-to-stop-a-…

Two powers in global rivalry rarely invest in the same infrastructure. On the Middle Corridor, the US and China now do. New analysis from Research Fellow Andrei Kazantsev-Vaisman argues the contest that matters runs through standards, not routes — and Washington's window is narrow. turancenter.org/analysis/rival…

Careful what you share on social networks. Hats off to The Third Lantern for their investigative work. The latest video from @TuranCenter youtube.com/watch?v=SrIywn…

Millions shared these AI Lego videos mocking US politics. Almost none knew they were made by the Iranian government. New investigation with @ThirdLantern — we trace the operation from one admin handle to named operators and the state pipeline behind them. Watch Now: youtu.be/SrIywnI0lmc

Iran's leaders call survival a victory. But after two lost wars, Khamenei's death, and the massacre of thousands of its own people, Tehran has preserved only a ruin and a client state ever more dependent on China and Russia. Armenia chose the opposite path. My new piece in @dcexaminer: washingtonexaminer.com/op-eds/4637656…

Two hundred and fifty years ago, thirteen colonies staked a claim that governments draw their legitimacy from the consent of the governed. It’s an idea that has since traveled far beyond America’s borders — including to the regions we study every day. On the 250th anniversary of American independence, the Turan Research Center extends its congratulations to the United States and its people. As Washington deepens its engagement across the South Caucasus and Central Asia — from the Middle Corridor and critical minerals to the region’s own push for sovereignty and connectivity — the cost of misreading this part of the world only grows. Our work exists to close that gap: helping American policymakers understand the region on its own terms, and helping the region see what a serious U.S. partnership can offer. Here’s to the next 250 years, and to a partnership grounded in mutual understanding. Happy Independence Day. #unitedstates #usindependenceday #independenceday🇺🇸 #turancenter #turanresearchcenter

Central Asian states will summon Russia's ambassador over a beaten migrant or a murdered child. But never over the thousands of their citizens Moscow recruits to fight in Ukraine. Grigorii Pyrlik examines why recruitment is the one fight they won't pick: turancenter.org/analysis/choos…

Every Western outlet says "Nagorno-Karabakh." CNN, BBC, Reuters, AP. Half of it isn't local. "Karabakh" — Turkic-Persian, 800 years old. "Black garden." "Nagorno" — Russian. Bolted on by Soviet planners in the 1920s. We repeat Moscow's map without noticing. youtu.be/7vd_U_ekFyc

Before he was Stalin, he called himself Koba. The name came from a Georgian novel he loved as a boy. The man who erased national identities across the USSR built his own out of the culture his empire then tried to bury. That instinct never died. New video: youtu.be/7vd_U_ekFyc #ExUSSR #Russia #CentralAsia #Caucasus

Conventional wisdom says giving up a territorial claim means surrendering sovereignty. Armenia is proving the reverse: for a small state, an unwinnable claim is the trap that keeps it a client of a larger power. My new piece in @TheNatlInterest on how Pashinyan is breaking out of it and why the Palestinians won't: nationalinterest.org/blog/silk-road…

Across the former Soviet Union, countries are changing the names Moscow once imposed. This is not just rebranding. It is about memory, language, and sovereignty. Why are ex-Soviet countries erasing Russian place names? Watch the full explainer: youtu.be/7vd_U_ekFyc This video is based on an analysis by Joseph Epstein for the Atlantic Council: atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainea… #ExUSSR #Russia #CentralAsia #Caucasus

Georgia's "cold friendly" ties with Iran aren't a choice Tbilisi can trade away in a U.S. reset — they're a structural outcome of Russian occupation no government has been free to ignore. @bako_kheladze — on the U.S. factor in Georgian-Iranian relations: turancenter.org/analysis/small…