Saudi Arabia's actions regarding influence in Central Asia: challenges and opportunities for the regional security order and Iran's position (1991-2021)

Saudi Arabia is trying to achieve leadership in the Islamic world and the position of a major regional power. This country is a traditional political regime in favor of Hanafi-Salafi Islam, a supporter of traditional regimes and fundamentalist Salafi movements in the Middle East region. The spread of Saudi Arabia's role as a supporter of Sunni fundamentalist can also be seen in regions such as Central Asia. The above issue is effective on the security complex of Central Asia and the security of this countries. Russia, China and especially Iran are also facing the transformation in the system of these collections and they are reacting to it. The purpose of this article is to investigate this issue. The question of this article states that: What effects have Saudi Arabia's actions in strengthening Salafist fundamentalism in Central Asia had on the framework of the security complex of Central Asian countries? The hypothesis of the article states that due to Saudi Arabia's use of the religious identity factor to influence the Central Asian region, by supporting movements such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and Islamic Renaissance, it has caused the spread of the idea of caliphate among the Sunni Hanafi majority in Central Asia. Securitization and the dual emergence of growth or weakening of security regionalism is the result of Saudi Arabia's security measures in Central Asia. In this context, with the intensification of the threat component, the possibility of security regionalism has, and the competition between political units in Central Asia has increased.