Population in Central Asia from the perspective of political geography

While the main purpose of this study is to examine the Central Asian region in terms of its strategic importance in general, it can reveal the importance of the region's population in their strategies in particular. The geopolitical importance of the region in terms of population extends to the trade competition between Tsarist Russia and England. The purpose of Tsarist Russia to settle the Russian population clusters in these large lands in order to consolidate its permanence in Central Asia dates back to the present day. The desire of the Russians to permanently spread their own way of thinking and social life in these lands, while applying the population factor to realize their strategy on the region. With the beginning of the Soviet Union period, it is seen that the Russian population was resettled on Central Asia both on a scheduled basis and with a larger population. For many years, the Russians have seen the whole region, especially Kazakhstan, as their backyard, due to both the potential population gap in Central Asia and their economic interestsIt is clearly seen that Central Asia, which has been under the influence of Russia for almost a century, has been influenced by the Russians politically, socially, economically and culturally throughout the historical process. The fact that this process was carried out over time in the countries of the region within a plan has caused its influence to continue today, despite the withdrawal of Russians from these lands . The hegemony of the Soviet Union ended with the Central Asian Republics becoming independent states - partially in some areas - and thus a new era began in the regional population structure in which local communities outweighed the Russian population. Today, all strategic interests of the regional powers in Central Asia, especially on the population, must be calculated and analyzed in detail.. Because, due to the important geopolitical position of the region, it always has assets that can attract both regional and global powers to these lands and cause new cases to emerge again. For this reason, the countries of the region should learn from their past experiences and develop their policies from a political perspective, especially for population planning, for today and even for the future.