Kazakhstan has officially declared its historical heritage — its historical connection with the Golden Horde.
This is a very strong geopolitical move on the part of Tokayev.
Kazakhstan is beginning to form national narratives at a meta-historical and meta-geographical level, which represents the highest level of geopolitical design.
This is especially notable in comparison with “prior-based” historiosophy (from Latin prior, meaning “previous”), where the past is simply copied rather than transformed into a meta-history of the future.
Central Asia is forming its own cluster-“ulus” within the framework of a New Eurasian reality, within which a Eurasian common development space (conditionally ECDS) is being formed.
As is known, the Horde was always divided into two “wings.”
The “right” wing or “barungar” and the “left” or “jungar.”
The Ulus of Jochi, or the Golden Horde, was divided precisely according to the principle of “two wings” between Jochi’s elder sons — Orda-Ejen and Batu.
The boundary between the wings was the Yaik (Ural) River.
The Golden Horde also had color differentiation: Ak-Orda (White Horde) and Kok-Orda (Blue Horde).
White (western horde) and blue (eastern horde) became traditional Turkic color markers and symbols.
Within the formation of a Global Eurasian island or a Sinocentric Mongol Empire 2.0, the White Horde is Russia, and the Blue Horde is Central Asia.
However, the meta-history being formed by Kazakhstan is interesting in that, on the one hand, it positions the country in relation to key Eurasian players, and on the other hand, such positioning does not contradict the narratives of these players and does not lead to conflict with them.
To begin with, the meta-historical format of the Golden Horde does not contradict China, which at one stage was a core region of the first Mongol Empire, where the Mongol Yuan dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, and known as the Yuan Shi.
The Golden Horde became part of the conceptual memory of the Russian Empire.
And the Golden Horde is a Turkicized empire, which makes this meta-historical narrative understandable in Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and Turkey.
On the other hand, the Golden Horde narrative gives Kazakhstan a special status within the broader Eurasian continuum.
It implies the strength of the Turkic peoples in relations with China, political “seniority” in relations with Moscow, and primacy in relation to the Seljuks, i.e., the proto-Turkic geopolitical project.
In essence, this project is largely directed toward Turkey.
Turkey has assumed that it is, by default, the assembly center of the Great Turan project (population size, army, economy).
In the South Caucasus, in relations with Azerbaijan, this has taken the form of the “two states — one nation” model.
And Turkey expected the same in Central Asia.
But Kazakhstan, through its meta-historical narrative, has clearly indicated to Ankara that Central Asia is a separate Turkic project, with its own leading geopolitical actors.
Kazakhstan historically never fully belonged to the Seljuk state, and the Seljuk symbol, the “Seljuk falcon,” was never the totem of all Turkic tribes (that role belongs to the Steppe Wolf).
In parallel with the Seljuks, in the north of modern Kazakhstan, from Siberia to the Urals, the Kimak Khaganate was located.
Turkey’s Pan-Turanist project is directed mainly toward Azerbaijan, and to a lesser extent toward Uzbekistan (where a distinct Timurid meta-historical narrative centered on Timur is forming), Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Thus, through properly constructed geopolitical design, Kazakhstan has “put Turkey in its place,” taken a “high position” in relations with Russia, and created preconditions for a key development project with China.
It should also be noted that both the Timurid narrative in Uzbekistan and the Horde narrative in Kazakhstan are strong expansionist narratives, something like bright coloration in the animal world used to deter “predators.”
