Turkey ramps up political influence in the Western Balkans

Turkey hopes to expand its influence by investing in infrastructure and religious landmark buildings across the Western Balkans. Building mosques are part and parcel of Ankara's geopolitical agenda, observers say.With a height of 50 meters (160 feet) and space for around 8,000 worshippers, the Namazgah mosque in Albania's capital Tirana is one of the most impressive Islamic places of worship in the Western Balkans. It was partly funded with around €30 million ($34 million) by the Turkish religious authority Diyanet. Its architectural inspiration is the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. In October 2024, after a construction period of around ten years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to Tirana for the inauguration of the mosque. While there, he signed an agreement to cooperate with Albania on agriculture and education, and donated a number of Turkish-made drones to the country. Diyanet also secured influence on the board of the new mosque and a Turkish imam was appointed, which was cause for dismay among Albanians. "The Namazgah mosque shows how Turkey is acting as a regional power in the Western Balkans, and working to increase its influence by building places of worship," Nathalie Clayer, a social scientist at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, told DW. The construction of mosques as a means to project soft power is also closely linked with furthering economic, political and military interests, she explained. "But local actors do have room to maneuver, and they use it," Clayer added. However, even if a mosque is built with external funding, the initiative usually begins with local communities, who also cover part of the costs. In the case of representative religious buildings in capital cities, the interests of national and external players are additionally taken into consideration, as Clayer pointed out. "A country's prestige, the needs of the Muslim community, national self-assurances, assertions made with respect to other religions: these are all factors that play a role in the construction of a place of worship and in the choice of architectural models," she told DW. Turkey overtakes Saudi Arabia Nowadays, Turkey is the leading nation in terms of funding new mosques in the Western Balkans. However, this was not the case in the first years following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. In 1995, Saudi Arabia was the main sponsor for the reconstruction of mosques in Bosnia and Herzegovina that had been destroyed during the war. It was only in the wake of Erdogan's rise to power in 2002 and 2003 that Turkey increasingly took the lead. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has increasingly withdrawn under the country's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Many Saudi-funded mosque projects have been handed over to local partners. Bin Salman has instead prioritized the restoration of historic mosques in Saudi Arabia, and the preservation of its own cultural heritage. It's all part of his Vision 2030, a set of reforms that prioritizes economic and social changes in Saudi Arabia. Erdogan's 'infrastructure imperialism' Turkey regards itself as the heir of the Ottoman Empire and stresses its claim to regional power. This claim goes beyond religion, as Rebecca Byrant, an expert in cultural anthropology at Utrecht University, explained. According to her, funding the construction of mosques is just one element of Turkish infrastructure policy, not only in the Western Balkans, but also in the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The construction of mosques must therefore to be viewed in a wider geopolitical context, the expert said. Whether railroad lines, ports, hotels or shopping districts: Turkish investors are on the move in a big way from Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Batumi in Georgia, from Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, to Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus and Senegal. The futuristic skyline of Astana, for instance, was mainly realized by Turkish construction companies, according to Bryant. Many tenders went to construction companies with direct ties to Erdogan. Bryant calls this form of political influence "infrastructure imperialism." Mega-projects such as in the Turkish-controlled part of northern Cyprus, where Erdogan inaugurated a complex comprising the presidential palace, parliament building, large hotels and a mosque (which had not yet been completed at the time of the inauguration) in May 2024 are "geopolitical places where Turkey expresses its ideas about the future," as Bryant explained. In her view, Erdogan is drawing on ethnic, religious or historical similarities and using rhetoric about "a common destiny" that links Turkey with these countries. The projects were intended to signal that "we are the future. We are more modern than the West," Bryant said. This article was originally published in German.