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GREAT GAME REVISITED
Hurriyet
Nov 1 2011
Turkey
The Great Game is the name given to the strategic rivalry between
the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central
Asia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was the British
novelist Rudyard Kipling who named that rivalry the "Great Game"
in his famous novel "Kim" published in 1907.
The Great Game between the two superpowers of the time roughly
starts with the 1813 Turkmenchay treaty between Russia and Persia,
after which Yerevan fell under Russian control. In a wider sense,
the Greek independence of 1821, the Baltalimanı agreement between
Turkey, Russia and Britain in 1838, the Crimean War of 1853-56, the
fall of Kars to Russia in 1856, the Turco-Russian war of 1877-78,
where the advance of the Russian army over Romania and Bulgaria
was literally only stopped at the gates of Istanbul at YeÅ~_ilköy
(where the Istanbul airport stands today) by a British ultimatum,
were the game's developments on the western front.
The Russian army then turned its face to the east. There, the
British East India Company had already organized Indians to topple
the 300-year-old Turkic-origin Mughal Empire in 1857 at the same time
that the British had begun an advance toward the north, mainly in the
direction of Afghanistan. If Afghanistan could be reached, the vast
resources of Central Asia would be under British control. Russia did
not want that and saw Afghanistan as its backyard. So the eastern
advance of the Russian Army to conquer Central Asia and Siberia
started. Afghanistan was the point where they came to a stalemate.
The game entered a new stage when Mahatma Gandhi's movement succeeded
in winning India's independence from Britain in 1947. The same year,
Pakistan was founded by the Muslims of India. The United Kingdom
supported this partition. Pakistan was a strong territory between
India under (Soviet-ruled) Moscow control and Afghanistan. The conflict
between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir region is a remnant of the
Great Game over Central Asia, because the geographical key is there.
The third stage came with the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979,
which led to two things: It sped up the collapse of the Soviet Union
and it supported the rise of Islamist fundamentalism. The latter was
an American bright idea made possible with the help of Pakistan against
the Russians, but it backfired badly as we can see today in many ways.
Now, Pakistan is being pressed by the West not to support Islamists
in Afghanistan. It is accused of sponsoring terrorism under the
protection of nuclear missiles it keeps against its rival India.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul met with Pakistan President Asif Ali
Zardari and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai yesterday in Istanbul
to convince them to find a face-saving solution for both prior to an
international conference there.
What is going on can be named as the Great Game revisited; but perhaps
it has never ended in the first place.
Hurriyet
Nov 1 2011
Turkey
The Great Game is the name given to the strategic rivalry between
the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central
Asia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was the British
novelist Rudyard Kipling who named that rivalry the "Great Game"
in his famous novel "Kim" published in 1907.
The Great Game between the two superpowers of the time roughly
starts with the 1813 Turkmenchay treaty between Russia and Persia,
after which Yerevan fell under Russian control. In a wider sense,
the Greek independence of 1821, the Baltalimanı agreement between
Turkey, Russia and Britain in 1838, the Crimean War of 1853-56, the
fall of Kars to Russia in 1856, the Turco-Russian war of 1877-78,
where the advance of the Russian army over Romania and Bulgaria
was literally only stopped at the gates of Istanbul at YeÅ~_ilköy
(where the Istanbul airport stands today) by a British ultimatum,
were the game's developments on the western front.
The Russian army then turned its face to the east. There, the
British East India Company had already organized Indians to topple
the 300-year-old Turkic-origin Mughal Empire in 1857 at the same time
that the British had begun an advance toward the north, mainly in the
direction of Afghanistan. If Afghanistan could be reached, the vast
resources of Central Asia would be under British control. Russia did
not want that and saw Afghanistan as its backyard. So the eastern
advance of the Russian Army to conquer Central Asia and Siberia
started. Afghanistan was the point where they came to a stalemate.
The game entered a new stage when Mahatma Gandhi's movement succeeded
in winning India's independence from Britain in 1947. The same year,
Pakistan was founded by the Muslims of India. The United Kingdom
supported this partition. Pakistan was a strong territory between
India under (Soviet-ruled) Moscow control and Afghanistan. The conflict
between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir region is a remnant of the
Great Game over Central Asia, because the geographical key is there.
The third stage came with the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979,
which led to two things: It sped up the collapse of the Soviet Union
and it supported the rise of Islamist fundamentalism. The latter was
an American bright idea made possible with the help of Pakistan against
the Russians, but it backfired badly as we can see today in many ways.
Now, Pakistan is being pressed by the West not to support Islamists
in Afghanistan. It is accused of sponsoring terrorism under the
protection of nuclear missiles it keeps against its rival India.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul met with Pakistan President Asif Ali
Zardari and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai yesterday in Istanbul
to convince them to find a face-saving solution for both prior to an
international conference there.
What is going on can be named as the Great Game revisited; but perhaps
it has never ended in the first place.