Author Hopkirk sees Central Asia on boil

Author Hopkirk sees Central Asia on boil

By Jules Stewart

LONDON (Reuter): British historian and writer Peter Hopkirk says a century-old power play for control of Central Asia is once again on the boil, with the Russians looking the front runners.

In his latest book On Secret Service East of Constantinople,Hopkirk picks up the thread of his top seller The Great Game, the saga of espionage and intrigue between Britain and Russia in the 19th century for mastery of the crucial gateway to India.

"The Great Game has started again," 62-year-old Hopkirk told Reuters. "The United States is terrified the mullahs will get their hands on nuclear weapons, Iran is in it for religious reasons, Turkey is an economic contestant and even Israel is involved."

Hopkirk, former chief reporter for The Times newspaper, said he first caught the scent of Central Asian intrigue at 14 when he read Rudyard Kipling's classic novel Kim.

"Kipling coined the phrase and there are 36 mentions of the Great Game in his novel," he said. "It sounded mysterious and exciting to a young boy."

Hopkirk hoped to join the Indian Army but was too late -- the country gained its independence from Britain before he could enlist. He instead served in Somalia with the King's African Rifles.

"The British were the last to have a foot in Empire and I guess I'm a leftover from those days," he said. "I find Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent fascinating, which is why I've spent a lot of the past 25 years traveling in the region."

In his new book Hopkirk picks up the thread on the eve of World War I, when Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm plotted to unleash a holy war to destroy Britain's power in the East.

"Masterminded by Berlin, but unleashed from Constantinople, the holy war was a new and more sinister version of the old Great Game," he said.

The first challenge to British sovereignty over India ended in 1907 when Russia and Britain signed the Anglo-Russian convention which divided the disputed countries of Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet into spheres of political influence.

Germany stepped into the picture eight years later, determined to inflame anti-British sentiment in these countries and drive them into a war against British rule in India.

Hopkirk weaves a romantic yet factual tale of intrigue involving the Indian Secret Service, German agents who secretly slip into Afghanistan to draw the Emir into an attack on India and even T.E. Lawrence "of Arabia", used as a go-between to bribe the Turks into lifting a siege of a British garrison.

The book covers in detail some of the shadowy episodes of the period, such as Britain's alleged involvement in the massacre of Bolshevik commissars at Baku and the infamous Zimmerman telegram, unmasked by British code-breakers as a German ploy to embroil Mexico in the war against the United States.

In the end, the German plot collapses with the defeat of its armies in Europe and British India is secure until independence in 1947.

"The players are different now," said Hopkirk. "The Russians look a bit like winning control of Central Asia, as hardliners in Moscow are put out by the loss of empire since the break-up of the Soviet Union. They are eager to get their hands on this sensitive region."

Hopkirk said his passion for Central Asia was still running high and he was considering a sixth book on the subject. "I've got one in mind, but all I can say now is that it is connected with India," he said.

(On Secret Service East of Constantinople is published on April 18 by John Murray.)