From Türkiye to Central Asia, New Digital Silk Routes Are Forming

TL:DR

• Digital Silk Routes are forming through Türkiye & Central Asia, using the same paths that once moved silk to now transport data & drive economic growth.
• New subsea cables in Black Sea & Arabian Gulf plus terrestrial networks through Türkiye create diverse connectivity options for international traffic.
• Istanbul & Türkiye are emerging as connectivity hubs linking European, Arab & Asian digital economies, with Equinix facilities supporting this transformation.

To many, the term "Silk Road" evokes exotic images of camel trains and ancient cities. In reality, there was no single Silk Road; there were multiple land and sea routes used to transport goods between east and west. In addition to silk, these goods included spices, tea, porcelain and precious stones.

Now, there's a digital equivalent to the Silk Routes forming between Asia and Europe. Just like the merchants of old moved physical goods, today's businesses spur digital economic growth by moving public internet and private IP network traffic between continents.

In previous blog posts, I detailed telecommunications routes through the Arabian Peninsula that can bypass the Red Sea bottleneck. I've also looked at factors that influence the growth of digital economies in emerging markets and how to close the digital divide in Africa. In this new post, I'll build upon these previous topics by exploring the digital routes that are emerging in and around Türkiye and Central Asia. I'll also look at how these routes can drive digital economic growth and what challenges countries need to overcome to make the most of the opportunity.

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New subsea and terrestrial cables form the basis for Digital Silk Routes

The international community is looking to bypass the single point of failure in the Red Sea corridor with alternative routes through more geopolitically stable regions. Let's take a closer look at some of these routes.

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Source: TeleGeography

The map above shows major subsea and terrestrial routes through the Arabian Gulf, Iraq and Türkiye. It also shows Equinix IBX® colocation data centers in Sofia, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Muscat, which host and interconnect service providers and serve as digital hubs along the routes.

Subsea routes

The following subsea cable systems are currently in service or coming soon:

• 2Africa, FALCON and GBICS/MENA in the Arabian Gulf
• Caucasus Cable System, Georgia-Russia and KAFOS in the Black Sea
• MedNautilus Submarine System off the Aegean coast of Türkiye
• The Trans-Caspian Fiber Optic Cable Project in the Caspian Sea (2026)

The Vodafone Kardessa and FIG systems (not shown) are also due to enter service during 2026-2027, bringing new capacity to the Black Sea and Arabian Gulf, respectively. Other recently announced projects include the EU Global Gateway subsea project in the Black Sea[1] and the agreement between Sparkle and Turkcell to link Izmir, Türkiye with Europe via the existing BlueMed system.[2]

Terrestrial routes

In 2021, China announced cross-border terrestrial infrastructure via Pakistan to connect with the PEACE subsea cable system.[3]

Since 2023, the EXA Trans-Adriatic Express has provided low-latency connectivity between Istanbul, Sofia, Athens, Milan and Marseille.[4] More recently, EXA Infrastructure partnered with SOCAR Fiber to extend connectivity along the TANAP gas pipeline across Türkiye toward Georgia, with plans to extend south toward the Iraq border.[5]

In 2024, Telegraph42 announced a new dual diverse-path terrestrial network providing multi-terabit capacity between Hong Kong and Frankfurt, passing through Central Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans along the way.[6]

In July of this year, TurkNet and SOCAR announced a new fiber backbone across Türkiye, stretching from Georgia to Greece.[7]

RETN, whose global network footprint has for many years offered connectivity between Europe and China through Türkiye and parts of Central Asia, also recently announced the activation of a new network node in the Equinix Istanbul IL2 facility.

Regulatory challenges in Central Asia and the Caucasus limit further growth

While the upcoming projects in Türkiye and the Black Sea are encouraging, true Digital Silk Routes would also need to pass through the Caucasus nations and Central Asia. The International Telecommunication Union's regulatory tracker[8] and recent white paper on the CIS region[9] paint a less optimistic picture of terrestrial connectivity in these countries.

While it's true that internet penetration is growing rapidly in some of these countries, other factors are standing in the way of further digital growth. As the table below shows, Türkiye, Georgia and Armenia have reached G4 maturity in the ITU ICT Regulatory Tracker, defined as "integrated regulation-led by economic and social policy goals."[10] However, lower regulatory maturity in other countries prevents market competition and discourages global technology companies from entering the region.

Regulatory maturity in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Nearby Countries

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Sources: International Telecommunication Union - ICT Regulatory Tracker

Along with poor cross-border cooperation, low regulatory maturity limits international route diversity and local availability of digital content. Overcoming these challenges will be key to enabling the full potential of the Digital Silk Routes. As the map below shows, building terrestrial connectivity directly from Türkiye through the Caucasus and Central Asia is currently unfeasible due to regulatory challenges in countries along the route.

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Location of the G4, G3, G2 and G1 countries. Source: MapChart

Digital Silk Routes draw investment from east and west

China and Russia have invested in infrastructure projects to increase internet penetration and grow the digital economies of Central Asia. These investments will help, but won't be enough to overcome the challenges of high costs, lack of cross-border cooperation and competitive choice, and monopolistic practices.

For these reasons, Central Asian nations-like many of their Middle Eastern counterparts-remain dependent on Frankfurt and other European hubs for internet content, cloud services and global connectivity. In contrast, Türkiye is a relatively liberal and stable country, and is therefore attracting major global service providers. This is one reason that Istanbul is emerging as a regional connectivity hub, reducing the proportion of content and cloud services that have to be sourced from Europe.

Belt and Road Initiative

In 2013, China announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a major program aimed at strengthening trading ties and economic growth. There are 150 BRI member nations worldwide, including Türkiye and all the Caucasus/Central Asian nations.[11] Part of this program involves considerable Chinese investment in transportation, pipelines, telecommunications and large infrastructure projects in Central Asia.

The term "Digital Silk Road" was appropriated in 2017 by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in expanding the scope of the BRI to include digital services.[12] In this context, the term is a misnomer, since it describes neither roads nor digital routes. Instead, it's a metaphor for Chinese-based technology companies like Alibaba, Baidu, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Douyin (TikTok), EdgeNext, Huawei, Kaopu Cloud, Tencent, Xiaomi, and many others. These companies are trading on the world tech stage and further adding to digital economic growth globally.

Europe

The European Bank is funding reconstruction and development projects aimed at growing transportation links with Central Asia. One would hope that these transportation projects would also incorporate optical fiber links.

Türkiye is set for digital growth

With new deployments by global service providers and thriving cloud, content and finance sectors in Istanbul, the digital economy of Türkiye is poised for significant growth over the next few years.

The country already has the 17^th largest economy in the world, with a GDP of $1.32 trillion. While the World Bank reports some challenges to economic growth-such as growing inequality and a difficult recovery from major earthquakes in 2023-the country's GDP is consistently growing at around 3% annually.[13]

Both Istanbul and Ankara are attracting new infrastructure and data center projects that will support international subsea and terrestrial networks. This will drive two-fold benefits:

• Opening new intercontinental routes that bypass the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf
• Meeting demand for digital services in Türkiye and neighboring nations

Paradoxically, Türkiye's mobile 5G network rollouts are behind the curve. All three of the national MNOs-Turkcell, Turk Telekom and Vodafone-are in the testing phase and just completed spectrum auctions last month. Given widespread internet penetration in the country, 5G rollout will undoubtedly accelerate the growth of Türkiye's digital economy.

To support this growth, the Equinix Istanbul campus offers two carrier-neutral Equinix IBX® colocation facilities: IL2 and IL4, each with 7.5 MW colocation space. Also, the new IL3 data center will be ready for sales in 2026, offering 9 MW colocation space in the same campus. Inside these Equinix colocation data centers, enterprises in Türkiye are connecting with a vibrant ecosystem of global service providers and business partners, unlocking new service and collaboration opportunities.

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Equinix IBX data centers in Istanbul

Istanbul: An economic hub, then and now

Istanbul occupies a prime position in today's emerging Digital Silk Routes, just as it once did for the historical Silk Routes. The city has become a gateway connectivity hub for both regional and intercontinental connectivity, a fact that's already driving digital economic growth.

The term "Digital Silk Road" has been appropriated as a metaphor for the rise of Chinese tech in emerging markets, driven by service providers emanating from the PRC and looking to expand globally. This is just one example of the globalization of digital economic growth. Istanbul, at the gateway between Europe and Asia, stands to benefit from new digital services and technologies, regardless of the nationality of the service providers enabling them.

Semantics aside, the important role played by carrier-neutral colocation, a supportive regulatory environment, and diverse, competitive connectivity cannot be overstated. In Istanbul, new telecom networks, content, cloud and IT service providers, and emerging tech are coming together in a single hub, indicating a coming wave of national and regional digital transformation.

Equinix is proud to play our part in supporting Türkiye's digital economic growth. As an example, one Equinix customer-SunExpress, a joint venture of Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa-was able to interconnect with cloud providers and aviation ecosystem partners directly from Istanbul, instead of purchasing a costly closed-circuit link to Europe. Read the SunExpress case study for the full story.

[1] Black Sea Submarine Cable (BSSC), Submarine Cable Networks.

[2] Sparkle and Turkcell Sign a Memorandum of Understanding on a Subsea Cable Solution Connecting Izmir to Milan, GSMA, March 6, 2025.

[3] Mifrah Haq, China builds Digital Silk Road in Pakistan to Africa and Europe, Nikkei Asia, January 29, 2021.

[4] Trans-Adriatic Express, EXA Infrastructure.

[5] EXA Infrastructure and SOCAR Fiber collaborate for Red Sea route diversity, EXA Infrastructure, July 2, 2024.

[6] Saf Malik, Telegraph42 unveils alternative route for Hong Kong to Frankfurt data, Capacity Media, June 10, 2024.

[7] Nadine Hawkins, SOCAR Fiber and TurkNet join forces to build Turkey's fastest internet highway, Capacity Media, July 3, 2025.

[8] ICT Regulatory Tracker, International Telecommunication Union.

[9] State of digital development and trends in the CIS region: Challenges and opportunities, International Telecommunication Union, April 2025.

[10] ICT Regulatory Tracker: Methodology, International Telecommunication Union.

[11] Mapping the Belt and Road initiative: this is where we stand, Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), June 7, 2018.

[12] Jing Cheng and Jinghan Zeng, "Digital Silk Road" as a Slogan Instead of a Grand Strategy, Journal of Contemporary China, Volume 33, Issue 149, June 15, 2023.

[13] The World Bank in Türkiye.

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Martin Atkinson Senior Manager of Peering and Interconnection EMEA

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