Codrul Cosminului
Department of Human, Social and Political Sciences, 2019
Paper title:
Turkey’s Soft Power Policy towards the Balkans after the 1990’s: Challenges and Opportunities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4316/CC.2019.02.009
Published in:
Issue 2, Vol. 25 / 2019
Publishing date:
2019-12-31
Pages:
407-424
Author(s):
Ismail Köse
Abstract:
During the communist period, many people in the Balkans lost their knowledge about religious beliefs and practices. After the regime change and the abolition of anti-religious laws, the places of worship have begun to fill up: more and more Christians have chosen to go to their churches; Muslims turned to the mosques, and Jews to the synagogues. While Christians and Jews had no problems to obtain accurate information about their beliefs, Muslims were faced with a difficult and serious dilemma. In the communist era, they had lost their institutional infrastructure, their social knowledge and the needed values to separate the correct information from the false ones. These phenomena allowed radical Islamic groups to gain ground throughout the Balkan area. The dictatorial regimes of the Gulf oil tycoons became their biggest supporters, encouraging non-democratic ideologies and financing the subtle penetration of some terrorist organisations in various regions of the world and different areas of activity. This study proposes an analysis of the “radicalisation of the Balkans”, the contemporary challenges related to the Islamic extremism, and how the soft power of Turkey contributes to combat terrorism in the Balkans.
Keywords:
Turkey, Policy, Balkans, Soft Power, Challenges, Opportunities, Radicalism, Extremism, Recruitment.


References:
          1. Balkan Jihadists. The Radicalisation and Recruitment of Fighters in Syria and Iraq, Balkan In-vestigative Reporting Network, March, 2016.
          2. Cabric Nemanja, Nedelkovska Maja, Demoli Donjeta, Hamzic Amina, Turks Bewitch the Bal-kans with Their Ad-dictive Soaps, https://balkaninsight.com/2013/05/01/turks-bewitch-the-balkans-with-their-addictive-soaps/
          3. Chosky Carol E. B., Chosky Jamsheed K., The Saudi Connection: Wahhabism and Global Jihad, in "World Affairs", Vol. 178, 2015, No. 1, pp. 23-34.
          4. Cumhuriyet, Reyhanlı Saldırısıiçin Vahim İddilar [Serious Allegations for Reyhanlı Attack], http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turkiye/274009/Reyhanli_saldirisi_icin_vahim_iddialar.html
          5. Ely Nicole, Combating Salafist Influence in the Western Balkans, in "European Security Jour-nal News.com", August 5, 2019, in https://www.esjnews.com/salafist-influence-in-the-western-balkans
          6. Ely Nicole, Much-loved Soaps Polish Turkey’s Image in Balkans, https://balkaninsight.com/ 2019/06/18/much-loved-soaps-polish-turkeys-image-in-balkans/
          7. Georgievski Boris, Could Balkan nations become the new hotbeds of Islamist extremism?, https://p.dw.com/p/2dpSC
          8. Golemi Ela, The Common Challenges of South-East European Countries in the Process of Euro-pean Integration, in "Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe", Vol. 16, No. 3, (2013). pp. 279-285.
          9. İzeti Metin, Balkanlardaki dini ve kültürel gelişmeler ve Türkiye [Religious and cultural de-velopments in Balkans and Turkey], https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/analiz-haber/balkanlardaki-dini-ve-kulturel-gelismeler-ve-turkiye/508841
          10. M. Özervarli Sait, Selefiyye [Salafiyya], in https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/selefiyye
          11. Marx Karl, Engels Friedrich, The Communist Manifesto, (ed. Samuel H. Beer), Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. New York, 1955.
          12. Morrison Kennet, Wahhabism in the Balkans, Shrivenham, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, February 2008.
          13. Novo Joseph, Religion and National Identity in Saudi Arabia, in "Middle Eastern Studies", Vol. 34, 1998, No. 3, pp. 34-53.
          14. Nye Joseph S. Jr., Public Diplomacy and Soft Power, in "The Annals of the American Acade-my of Political and Social Sciences", Vol. 616, 2008, No. 1, pp. 94-109.
          15. Özer Sarp, Türkiye’de Dini Hayat Araştırması [Religious Life Research in Turkey], Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı [Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs], Ankara, 2014.
          16. Petrovic Predrag, Islamic Radicalism in the Balkans, European Union Institute for Security Studies, Alert No. 24, June 2016, pp. 1-2.
          17. Schwartz Stephen, Wahhabism in the Balkans, in https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ weekly-standard/wahhabism-in-the-balkans
          18. TIKA [Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency] Report Balkans, 2018.
          19. Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency Annual Report 2018, in www.tika.gov.tr/ upload/2019/Faaliyet%20Raporu%202018/T%C4%B0KA%20Annual%20Report%202018.pdf