Ilxan's Men

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The Ilxan's Men (Ilxannıņ Adamlar) are an informal, unofficial grouping of many of the top political figures of Turkestan. The group spans official party, ethnic and religious lines, and is mostly made up of cabinet-level ministers of the Inner Keņes.

The group revolves around the current Ilxan, Sultan Qasım-ulı, and is composed of his closest colleagues and trusted ministers. These are people, at the base of things, that the Ilxan trusts. Given the structure of the Turkestani parliament, in which the cabinet is selected by the Ilxan and then ratified by the general assembly, the potential for cronyism and patronage is great. Some group akin to this was probably inevitable.

Membership of the Ilxan's Men is somewhat ill-defined. Officially, no such group exists, and no-one admits to being a member, though actual official denials are also thin on the ground. Different authorities on Turkestani political affairs claim different lists of who is "in" and who is "out"; the very nature of the group is such that membership is ascribed rather than admitted.

Not all those who are generally recognised as part of the group are cabinet ministers, and by no means all cabinet ministers, or even all top cabinet ministers, are members. The members tend to be established figures on the Turkestani political scene, and the Keņesbaşı, Minister of the Treasury, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary are almost always assumed to be members. There are also a few journalists, lawyers, local Xans, Baıs and Biis, and a few other prominent figures.

Conspiracy theorists often link the Ilxan's Men with the fringe political party called the Party of the Ilxan, or with other political groups on the fringes of the Turkestani party spectrum, or with criminal groups of one kind or another. Most serious political commentators, however, while acknowledging the likely reality of such a group, consider these possibilities unlikely. What is true is that these people are some of the main policymakers of the Turkestani state, and are considered to be the nation's top power-players.

Below is a partial list of those popularly assumed to be members of the Ilxan's Men: