Political movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which had as its goal the political union of all Turkic-speaking peoples in the Ottoman Empire , Russia, China, Iran, and Afghanistan.
The movement, which began among the Turks in the Crimea and on the Volga, initially sought to unite the Turks of the Ottoman and Russian empires against growing Russian domination. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , the father of the Republic of Turkey, later de-emphasized Pan-Turkism, encouraging Turkish nationalism only within Turkey. See also Ismail Gasprinski ; Enver Pasha ; Young Turks .