Turkestan (600 Kilometres)

The Turkic Republic, commonly refered to as Turkestan, it is landlocked and is also one of two countries in Central Asia. It was a pro-soviet buffer state that separated the Soviet Union and China. It is bordered by Russia, Mongolia, China, Tibet, India, and Kollestan. It has border disputes with India and China.

Turkestan has sometimes been refered to as the "Poland of Asia", being between three super powers who don't get along. Russia maintains bases in Turkestan along the Chinese, Indian, and Tibetan borders as per the request of the Turkic government, but their original purpose was to counter American bases in India.

Turkestan is the second nation in the world to have purple on their flag as a main colour, the other being Cortezia.

OTL PoD
Soviet expansion into Central Asia after World War I lead to direct conflict with the Republic of China over Xinjiang in 1934. After a resounding Chinese defeat, the Soviets established an independent communist buffer state controlled by the Uyghur population.

Following Turkestan's establishment and the Soviet annexation of Afghanistan in 1937, the British Empire launched large scale campaigns of anti-communist propaganda within India, resulting in strong border tension that is still unresolved to this day.

Other
''Turkestan is a nation I'm having trouble writing for. It's history seems to be a weird mix of Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and North Korea. I want it to be unique but I just can't think of a way to make a pro-soviet buffer nation interesting.''

This page exists purely as a way to understand that China is weaker in this timeline without fully diving into China yet.

Thanks for reading, sorry this one's a bit disappointing.

If you're interested in Turkestan's foreign relations: Turkestan has unification parties for both nations, but so far neither party has ever seen a majority. Both nations have border disputes with Turkestan and none of the three like each other.
 * Very Positive: Kollestan, Mongolia
 * Positive: Russia
 * Negative: Tibet, Nepal
 * Hostile: India, China