Nation: Federation of Turkestan.
Leader: Temir Zhumbayev.
HistoryThe Great War affected Central Asia, the area that would eventually become the Federation of Turkestan, in much the same way that it affected the rest of the Russian Empire. The Russians had wisely chosen an early exit from the large-scale European conflict, and this exit allowed for the Tsar to consolidate his power throughout the empire. The communists in the Russian Empire were either killed or forced into exile, nearly to the last man, and Central Asia did not escape the Tsar's reactionary onslaught. Communism had gained an early foothold in the small towns and villages of the homeland of the Turkic peoples, the idea of total equality and harmony finding no shortage of supporters among the diverse and often bickering peoples of Turkestan, who saw the ideology as a way to both resolve their differences with each other as well as cease the continuation of Russian imperialism. This early entrenchment required special action be taken in Central Asia by the Tsar's army to remove the threat that the ideology posed to order within the empire. Repression became particularly brutal; in many cases, especially in the north, towards the border with the motherland, entire towns were either killed or cleared out and dispersed to completely remove any communist element that was known to operate in them. These first reprisals ushered in a wave of emigration from Turkestan, particularly by communist sympathizers. A good many of these emigrants fled to China, where they mixed with the Turkic minorities already present in the country and help stir up the fever in the Chinese interior that would help lead to the overthrow of Sun Yat-sen's government.
Within Russian Turkestan, though, the reprisals were largely successful. Sentiment towards communism slowly began to wane as the Russians worked to isolate the mentally vulnerable Turkics from the infectious idealism that the communists had to offer. The same could not be said for anti-Russian sentiment, though. The actions of Russian soldiers in Central Asia during the defeat of the revolutionaries sparked a heated and passionate hatred among many Turkics for not only Russia, but imperialism in general. Throughout the twenties and thirties, anti-Russian sentiment in Central Asia continued to rise, with the peoples of Turkestan growing more and more violent against Russian authority, and the Russians proving less and less capable or willing to crack down. Ethnic Russians and Russian sympathizers were reviled and hated by the increasingly hostile native Turkics, and by the time of the late thirties, it was difficult for a Russian to dwell any distance from the main cities without getting attacked. To attempt to curb the unrest, Russian authorities attempted to appeal to the perceived religiosity of their Turkic subject-peoples, and created the Muslim Council of Turkestan. The Muslim Council attracted pro-Russian Turkic Muslims, and attempted to use religious leaders to capitalize off of the fact that the Russians had been largely tolerant of Islam in Central Asia, and thereby curb violence against Russian authority by a mass appeal to faith. The Muslim Council of Turkestan would end up proving fatal to Russian presence in the region, and severely damaging the reputation of both leaders of Islam and Muslims in general within Turkestan.
From its earliest days, having been founded in 1943, the Muslim Council was more than just a forum for discussion or a social organization for pro-Russians. The Council was distinctly militaristic, and completely hostile towards the growth of anti-Russian sentiment. It had close ties to Russian authorities, despite officially being independent of the Tsar's reach, and its members became infamous for their no-tolerance policy of public displays of anti-Russian sentiment within the areas that they operated. Members of the Muslim Council, which at its height numbered about a tenth of the total adult male population of Turkestan, would parade through the city-centres of main cities alongside their Russian compatriots, savagely beating and sometimes even murdering anyone who came out against their presence. The Muslim Council preached moderate Islam, but their ferocity and strong ties to the government cemented the view of Islam and its determined, hard-line followers as enemies of an independent Turkestan in the years to come.
On January 1, 1947, the Turkic War of Independence officially began. The Turkic Peoples' Unified Militias, an alliance of various violent anti-Russian groups from the numerous nationalities of Turkestan, launched a coordinated, multi-faceted attack on the Muslim Council headquarters in numerous major cities throughout Turkestan, including Tashkent, Dushanbe, Almaty and Bishkek. Numerous sites of Russian authority were targeted as well, including military outposts in major cities, police stations and prisons. The Muslim Council buildings were torn apart, and in most sites any members inside were killed, alongside their Russian guards. The exception to this was the Muslim Council building in Almaty; the Almaty Council building was occupied by the TPUM, and everyone inside (including most of the guards) was taken hostage. A siege began which lasted two and a half days, and would become known as the first battle of the Turkic War of Independence. Throughout the siege, the TPUM agents insisted that their sole demand for the hostages to be released was the dissolution of the Muslim Council. The Russians and Council alike were not supportive of the idea. One and a half days of silence after the first demand was given, Russian forces mistook movement near a window for a TPUM soldier lining up to fire on Russian forces. Shots were fired on the window, and one Uzbek Muslim hostage was killed, and a TPUM soldier injured. Minutes afterwards, shots were heard from the Russians inside of the building, and the militia announced that they'd executed all Russian hostages in the complex in retaliation for the shots fired at them. The Russians, intent on ending the crisis swiftly, decided that the time to make a move on the complex was overdue. Their decision proved a poor one, as once the Russians had forced the TPUM soldiers into the upper floor of the building, a bomb was detonated. Over 30 Russian soldiers lost their lives, alongside 22 hostages and around a dozen TPUM operatives. Numerous more Russian soldiers and policemen managing the siege were injured in the blast, and the resulting frenzy over the Russian failure to successfully end the situation resulted in mass public sentiment against the Muslim Council, which led to its formal abolition on January 12. It would not be the last time the organization was heard of, though.
Just before sunrise on February 2nd, the TPUM marked their transition from acts of terrorism and extreme civil disobedience to genuine warfare. Outposts of Russian authority in the sparsely populated north-west of Turkestan were raided, drawing Russian personnel and resources to the remote area to prevent it from becoming a hotbed of rebellious activity. The raids were merely a diversion; once a significant number of soldiers had left the city of Tashkent, in the extreme south of Turkestan, the city was swarmed with more TPUM fighters all at once than the Russian military had first suspected existed altogether. Most of the city's garrison was defeated over the course of the day, and by daybreak of February 3rd, Tashkent, the capital and largest city of Russian Turkistan, was announced as the provisional capital of the newly founded Federation of Turkestan. Enormous nationalist uproar rose throughout the city, and ethnic Russians had their homes and businesses swarmed, and were flushed out of the city in droves by the native Uzbek populace. When the Russians returned in force that afternoon, they were greeted by a city completely and utterly hostile to them. A Russian couldn't so much as approach the city without being assaulted by thunderous screams and a volley of rocks and thrown debris. The chance to strike down so many TPUM operatives all at once was too big of an opportunity for the Tsar's men to pass by, though, and so, after day's planning, the Russian military returned to Tashkent. Heavy urban fighting ensued, with the TPUM making keen advantage of their strong civilian support to set up ambushes for prowling Russian soldiers. Despite extreme losses on both sides, the Russians eventually came out on top, with what would eventually be called the "Massacre of Tashkent" marking their first major victory in the conflict. The battle's modern name is very telling. Despite wiping out almost half of the entire membership of the TPUM, and seemingly crushing the Federation in its infancy, the Russians were left with a regional capital in complete disrepair. Combining both civilian casualties from the massacre and the forced removal of Russians before the fighting began, the city of Tashkent was left with over 30% of its civilian population either dead or gone.
The remainder of 1947 was quiet. The TPUM ceased all violent operations and began to focus on recruitment to make up for their loses in Tashkent. The anti-Russian agenda also began to cool in favour of a more general policy of opposition to imperialism, in order to recruit to a wider base that sometimes included former members of the Muslim Council, and even ethnic Russians with Turkic sympathies. The organization also changed in leadership; much of the upper echelon was demoted, and in their place rose Samat Zhandosov: the new commander of the Turkic Peoples' United Militias. Samat was a half-Kazakh half-Uzbek, born in a Tajik village. He spoke most of the principal languages of Turkestan fluently, and helped align all of the various militias within the TPUM together into a more formal fighting force. On February 3rd, 1948, the first anniversary of the Massacre of Tashkent, Samat used his formally trained army to begin the liberation of traditional Tajik and Kyrgyz lands in the south-east of Turkestan. Assisted by civilians that disrupted and spied on Russian troop movements, as well as offering safe-haven to TPUM agents, Samat found his men in loose control of most of Dushanbe and Bishkek within a few days. The pace was gruelling, though, and Russian reinforcements always arrived eventually, if not rapidly. Samat chose to make a very controversial decision that was the first step towards ending the war with Turkestan independent. A cease-fire with Russian forces.
Making a point of appointing either former members of the Muslim Council or ethnic Russians as his representatives, Samat sent a delegation to Tashkent to begin talks with the Russians for pulling out of the two heavily fought over cities in the south-east. Hoping to avoid more massacres like happened in Tashkent, the Russians agreed to the partial cease-fire, pulling out all of their forces from the areas in and around Dushanbe and Bishkek. Most of the lands of the Tajiks and Kyrgz were now free. The status-quo would be maintained for four years, over which time hard-line members of the TPUM split off from the organization and began separate campaigns outside of the liberated area. Samat objected to his compatriots actions, fearing that it could result in reprisals against his men in the south-east of Turkestan. That threat was realized in 1952, when the situation in Turkestan became so violent that the military was forced to stop allowing the de-facto independence of Tajikistan and Kyrgzstan under the Turkic Peoples' United Militias, in order to try and curb violence elsewhere in the country.
It was the shining moment for the TPUM. They were heavily entrenched in the area, formally organized under Samat, and had the assistance of a populace that no longer had any tolerance for Russian military presence in their land. The Russian expeditionary force was soundly defeated in the Battle of Kokand, wherein two separate TPUM forces, one Kyrgz, coming from the north, and the other Tajik, coming from the south, ambushed a Russian division as they began to set up camp in the Uzbek city of Kokand. The Russians had arrived in the town merely in preparation of being split off to battle the northern and southern TPUM forces separately, and the attack happened before they'd been able to properly fortify the town. The Battle was pitched, but the initial TPUM advantage proved enough to eventually force a Russian surrender. The surviving Russian soldiers were stripped of our weapons, ammunition and provisions and forced to walk with their tails between their legs back to Tashkent. The prevailing Turkic army, meanwhile, gathered much of the civilian populace of Kokand and began a march of their own, north-east, to Bishkek. The army stopped along every major settlement along the way to the city, gathering together a massive militia, larger than any that had been gathered all at once by the TPUM before. Once in Bishkek, Samat's army was given a final influx of new men, before proceeding directly to the Kazakh city of Almaty. It would prove to be the most important battle of the entire war.
Unfortunately, while Samat's army was growing in Uzbekistan and Kyrgzstan on their way to Almaty, the TPUM was swiftly losing ground in Tajikistan. Dushanbe was completely surrounded by Russian forces, and before Samat reached Altmaty, the TPUM would be dealt their last major loss of the war with the siege ending in TPUM surrender. Learning their lesson from Tashkent, the Russians were merciful to the people of Dushanbe, but not to the TPUM operatives they'd captured. A tenth were released as a show of peace, sent east to join their brothers in defending the rest of Tajikistan, but they would swiftly find that their homeland was no longer under assault. The Russians had stopped at Dushanbe. Two fifths of the remaining force of captured men at Dushanbe was sent to Tashkent to be avoid the Russian garrison of the city from being overwhelmed. Before the men reached Tashkent, Samat reached Almaty.
The Battle of Almaty more than eclipsed the Turkic failure during the Siege of Dushanbe. The city was the second largest in Turkestan, the Kazakhs' equivalent to Tashkent, and controlling it would leave all of Kyrgzstan firmly controlled, and with more than a quarter of the Kazakh and Uzbek population and half of the Tajik population within TPUM control. It would be a wonderful bargaining position for a peace settlement. Unfortunately for Samat, he would've live to see the battle won. The heroic general died during an encirclement attempt of the city that eventually proved successful. When the Russians sent out a force from the city proper to break the circle, Samat was slain in battle, but the force was wiped out to the last man, and their footsteps traced into the city. Once the city-folk heard of Samat's death, even boys and women started to join in alongside the TPUM, fighting to avenge their fallen hero and fellow Kazakh. The Russians, through superiorly trained and armed, were simply too outnumbered. Once their commander fell, the Russian forces surrendered, and Samat's delegation in Tashkent received news from Almaty telling them exactly what had happened. Discouraged by Samat's death, but highly encouraged by the success at Almaty, the TPUM delegation in Tashkent pressed for peace.
The terms they offered were simple: Immediate evacuation of all Russian military personnel from Turkestan, and recognition from the Russian Emperor of the Federation of Turkestan's independence. The Russian officials in Tashkent, tired of the war and sick of hanging onto territories that cost them much more they gave, reluctantly agreed. On November 2nd, 1952, Russia formally recognized the independence of the Federation of Turkestan. To solidify their surrender, the Russian officials had the hostages held in Tashkent from the Siege of Dushanbe released, and orders were given to the expedition force in Dushanbe to release their prisoners as well, and immediately leave Turkestan. The conclusion of the war, and the events that occurred post-independence, would be made much more complicated by the refusal of the Russian soldiers in Dushanbe to follow their orders. Insistent on defeating the Turkics rather than negotiating with them, the Russian commanders in Dushanbe ordered the execution of their portion of the TPUM prisoners. The Russian forces then moved westward, into Uzbek lands near Samarkand and Bukhara, as well as Turkmenistan, and reforged the Muslim Council of Turkestan in this areas. Most of the citizenry of this region, many of them pro-Russian thanks to a former strong support of the Muslim Council, refused to believe or acknowledge the Treaty of Tashkent. The Muslim Council set up its own militia, comprised mostly of ethnic Turkmen, and dispersed throughout western Uzbek and Kazakh lands, spreading dissent against the newly legitimated Turkic Peoples' United Militia government. It fell to Iskakov Shabdarbayev, Samat's successor, to finish off the last remnants of Russian control in Turkestan.
The pacification began with the capture of the Muslim Council's men hiding in the deserts near the Caspian Sea. Atyrau, a small town along the border of Europe and Asia, north of the northern Caspian coast, was fortified by TPUM soldiers. The TPUM lead a series of patrols along the coasts of the Caspian Sea and the lakes in the area, preventing supply of the Muslim Council's militias by sea, whereas anti-Council sentiment in the towns prevented it from arriving by land. Iskakov effectively used thirst and a blockade of supplies to the desert to earn a Muslim Council surrender. His compatriots in the south had been less crafty—they'd simply sent what was left of Samat's army from the Battle of Altmaty to Samarkand and Bukhara to kill off all of the Russians soldiers remaining there. Both plans were successes in the short term, resulting in both de facto and de jure TPUM control over all of formerly Russian Turkestan. The sloppiness, high casualty rate and perceived barbarity of the TPUM strategy in the south, though, would lead to a persistent anti-TPUM sentiment in southern Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan that continued throughout the post-independence era.
Following the end of war in Turkestan, Iskakov was left as the country's first Leader. Wanting a city with both a central position in Turkestan, a diverse population and a good name as his capital city, Iskakov chose the southern Kazakh city of 'Turkestan'. The city was almost entirely Kazakh, but its small population allowed for it grow and take on new ethnic groups as it spread, becoming more representative of Turkestan as a whole. Iskakov, who have primarily Uzbek heritage, promoted the growth of his new capital, and encouraged immigration of Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmen, Kyrgyzs, Russians and other ethnic minorities alike. It was in his first few days in office in Turkestan City that Iskakov ordered the division of Turkestan into seven states, each joined in federation to form the Federation of Turkestan. Iskakov ordered forced relocation of many peoples out of their traditional homelands and into new areas that were now reserved for them. He gave no speciality when he gave his divisions of the land, attempting to ensure that it was divided relatively equally in value and size amongst the states. Despite this, the Kazakhs lost more than any other ethnicity but still managed to be larger than any other two states put together, owing to their peoples' land's predominance in Turkestan. The various Turkic peoples were generally accepting of the land exchanges, sometimes seeing them as autocratic, but ultimately benevolent.
Iskakov would end up ruling Turkestan for ten years, most of which were spent organizing the land and its inhabitants as per his plan, and helping to develop industry and infrastructure in Turkestan after the long and economically devastating war. Upon his death (of natural causes) in 1962, elections were called, as per his mandate, to determine the country's next leader. According to Iskakov's plans, a separate election was to be underwent in each of the seven states, and the seven leaders of each state would convene together to determine the next head of state. The first of these plans went off without a hitch, but the convening of the seven leaders was made difficult when Turkmenistan's leader subsequently declared Turkmenistan an independent state. The six leaders convened and chose one of their own to rule over the country. The man chosen was Kokhir Ibrahimi, a Tajik from the Caspian state. Kokhir determined that the Turkic military, formed out the formalized post-independence TPUM, would not intervene in Turkmenistan. Kokhir also set about writing up a formal constitution for Turkestan, enshrining Iskakov's determinations into law, establishing basic fundamental rights (including language rights) for Turkic citizens, and helping convert Turkestan into a modern nation-state. Kokhir began a period of progressive growth and prosperity for Turkestan, but also warming relations with the communist countries to the east.
The modern day Leader of the Turkic people is Temir Zhumbayev, a Kazakh from the Kazakhstan state in his third month of leadership. Temir was elected on a promise to assert Turkestan's status internationally, specifically including cooling relations with the communists. Temir has made significant improvements to the Turkic Military in his short time in Turkestan City, and seems poised to help cement Turkestan's status a regional power, and expand her influence abroad.
The national capital and capital of the Turkestan state is Turkestan City. The Turkestan state is ethnically cosmopolitan.
The capital of the Kazakhstan state is Astana. Kazakhstan is majority Kazakh.
The capital of the Tajikistan state is Dushanbe. Tajikistan is majority Tajik.
The capital of the Caspian state is Nukus. The Caspian is ethnically cosmopolitan.
The capital of the Kyrgzstan state is Bishkek. The Kyrgzstan state is majority Kyrgz.
The capital of the Uzbekistan state is Tashkent. The Uzbekistan state is majority Uzbek.
The capital of the Turkmenistan state is Ashgabat. The Turkmenistan state is majority Turkmen. (Turkmenistan is no longer part of the Federation of Turkestan).
