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Uzbekistan has summoned home 2,000 students from Turkey alleging that conditions are not safe enough there.

However, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reported an Uzbek official claiming the real reason is a cooling of relations with Turkey because of the rise of fundamentalism there. Many Uzbek students had come under its influence.

Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Turkey has been viewed as the natural role model and patron of the five ex-Soviet Republics of central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.