Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NeOtStraTurkBalk (Neo-Ottomanism? New Strategies of Turkey and the Impact of Foreign Aid to Post-War Cultural Reconstruction in the Balkans)
Reporting period: 2018-07-01 to 2020-06-30
The project sought to find out how foreign assistance in the area of civil society and cultural reconstruction following extreme inter-ethnic violence and state breakdown creates changes in the affected societies and how it is perceived locally. My case study was the aid from the Turkish Republic to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the context of the wider post-Yugoslav region. The empirical research addressed Turkish aid to the rebuilding of Ottoman-era monuments and other sites affected by war violence, as well as in the sphere of higher education. The project sought answers to the questions: How do interpretations of the historical legacy of the Ottoman Empire in the post-Yugoslav region correspond, or work in dissonance with the actual policies of aid of the Republic of Turkey as a major donor? , especially for post-war reconstruction projects in Bosnia-Herzegovina? What sort of changes in the political and public culture in the beneficiary countries can we observe as a result of Turkish contributions in the areas of culture, higher education and religious institutions, and what local responses do they yield?
This project set the analysis of the impact of Turkish aid in the Balkans in the context of the revival of the concept and debates on Neo-Ottomanism in the region and globally. The influx of foreign assistance in the post-war post-Yugoslav region was pertinent and necessary in the aftermath of war violence, especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina: it also opened space for numerous instrumentalizations and manipulations in the still reigning ethnonationalist discourse. Both Serbian and Croatian nationalist discourses have presented the postwar aid coming from Turkey as Neo-Ottomanism, defined as a revival of Turkish “old, imperial” territorial, religious and cultural aspirations in the region. Hence, this project sought to rescue the case of Turkish post-war assistance in the region from the layers of nationalist hegemonic representations. It has done so by bringing forth, first, an original insight in the hitherto poorly studied segment of the post-war reconstruction in the post-Yugoslav space, namely, the impact of foreign aid and intervention coming from the Turkish Republic. It also sought to unravel the links between the fears of alleged Neo-Ottomanism, portrayed as an expansionist and ‘Islamization’ program of Turkey in the Balkans, and the current Islamophobic and anti-immigrant discourses of the populist political parties in the European Union.
The main objective of the project is to map and interpret the aid policies of Turkey in the post-Yugoslav region against the examination of the concept of Neo-Ottomanism, as a relevant means of critically assessing the nationalistic interpretations of ethno-religious divisions in the post-was post-Yugoslav space. It also seeks to provide an impartial assessment of the aims and results of foreign assistance to the regions ravaged by ethnonationalist sectarian violence.
This project set the analysis of the impact of Turkish aid in the Balkans in the context of the revival of the concept and debates on Neo-Ottomanism in the region and globally. The influx of foreign assistance in the post-war post-Yugoslav region was pertinent and necessary in the aftermath of war violence, especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina: it also opened space for numerous instrumentalizations and manipulations in the still reigning ethnonationalist discourse. Both Serbian and Croatian nationalist discourses have presented the postwar aid coming from Turkey as Neo-Ottomanism, defined as a revival of Turkish “old, imperial” territorial, religious and cultural aspirations in the region. Hence, this project sought to rescue the case of Turkish post-war assistance in the region from the layers of nationalist hegemonic representations. It has done so by bringing forth, first, an original insight in the hitherto poorly studied segment of the post-war reconstruction in the post-Yugoslav space, namely, the impact of foreign aid and intervention coming from the Turkish Republic. It also sought to unravel the links between the fears of alleged Neo-Ottomanism, portrayed as an expansionist and ‘Islamization’ program of Turkey in the Balkans, and the current Islamophobic and anti-immigrant discourses of the populist political parties in the European Union.
The main objective of the project is to map and interpret the aid policies of Turkey in the post-Yugoslav region against the examination of the concept of Neo-Ottomanism, as a relevant means of critically assessing the nationalistic interpretations of ethno-religious divisions in the post-was post-Yugoslav space. It also seeks to provide an impartial assessment of the aims and results of foreign assistance to the regions ravaged by ethnonationalist sectarian violence.
Based on the media materials, academic literature sources and other documentation, as well as interviews, the project examined the diverse perspectives on the positioning of Turkey in the post-Yugoslav region: as a donor, positive political and cultural actor, “protector state,” or a “foreign threat.”
It involved the following Research Actions:
1. By investigating primary sources, such as those of the Turkish State Directorate for Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Türk İslam Birliği, abbreviated as Diyanet), the policies of Turkish aid to Bosnia Herzegovina in the sphere of religious development, i.e. its donations to and cooperation with Bosnian Muslim religious institutions were analyzed. The second set of primary sources pertained to the documents of Turkish governmental aid agencies and charities (primarily TIKA and Yunus Emre), which provide funding for higher education, and for the rebuilding of the Ottoman-era monuments.
2. Fieldwork in Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina. While the fieldwork was supposed to take place in the end of the first year of the project, it was impossible due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemics and the closing down of the borders in Belgium and Turkey. Hence, partial results were achieved relying on the online communication. In the long report I elaborate on the problems I encountered in the effort to conduct online interviews with officials in Turkish governmental aid agencies, NGOs and charity foundations’ workers, as well as with faculty and students of Turkish-funded universities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and religious functionaries.
3. The task leading to the conclusion of the project is to do a critical analysis of the operationalization of the concept of Neo-Ottomanism in the global, and, more specifically, wider European context, in relation to the uses of Neo-Ottomanism in the post-Yugoslav space. Here, the aim is to focus on the media and political discourse in the European Union that carry anti-Turkish stances and anti-Muslim (Islamophobic) attitudes vis-à-vis the refugee (“migrant”) crises since 2014.
4. This research action, as part of the project’s conclusions, was intended to criticize, based on my findings, the use of Neo-Ottomanism as a discursive assessment of the role and interests of Turkey in the Balkans.
Dissemination of the results was severely impacted by the outbreak of the pandemics. While six conferences and workshops that I was scheduled to take part in in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled, only two were, instead, realized online (I present them in detail in the long report).
Since I experienced serious setbacks with the planned fieldwork, and had to cancel my live interviews in Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina, I had to rethink some of the project foci in 2020-2021. Since then, I focused on more generally relevant and comparative issues, such as the problems of reception of international assistance in the post-conflict space, gender aspects of the neoconservative politics, and the problems of social inequality associated with the neoliberal trends in the postsocialist regions.
The dissemination of research findings and their comparative and theoretical aspects, which took place at a number of venues (before the pandemics) are presented in detail in the attached report.
It involved the following Research Actions:
1. By investigating primary sources, such as those of the Turkish State Directorate for Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Türk İslam Birliği, abbreviated as Diyanet), the policies of Turkish aid to Bosnia Herzegovina in the sphere of religious development, i.e. its donations to and cooperation with Bosnian Muslim religious institutions were analyzed. The second set of primary sources pertained to the documents of Turkish governmental aid agencies and charities (primarily TIKA and Yunus Emre), which provide funding for higher education, and for the rebuilding of the Ottoman-era monuments.
2. Fieldwork in Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina. While the fieldwork was supposed to take place in the end of the first year of the project, it was impossible due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemics and the closing down of the borders in Belgium and Turkey. Hence, partial results were achieved relying on the online communication. In the long report I elaborate on the problems I encountered in the effort to conduct online interviews with officials in Turkish governmental aid agencies, NGOs and charity foundations’ workers, as well as with faculty and students of Turkish-funded universities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and religious functionaries.
3. The task leading to the conclusion of the project is to do a critical analysis of the operationalization of the concept of Neo-Ottomanism in the global, and, more specifically, wider European context, in relation to the uses of Neo-Ottomanism in the post-Yugoslav space. Here, the aim is to focus on the media and political discourse in the European Union that carry anti-Turkish stances and anti-Muslim (Islamophobic) attitudes vis-à-vis the refugee (“migrant”) crises since 2014.
4. This research action, as part of the project’s conclusions, was intended to criticize, based on my findings, the use of Neo-Ottomanism as a discursive assessment of the role and interests of Turkey in the Balkans.
Dissemination of the results was severely impacted by the outbreak of the pandemics. While six conferences and workshops that I was scheduled to take part in in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled, only two were, instead, realized online (I present them in detail in the long report).
Since I experienced serious setbacks with the planned fieldwork, and had to cancel my live interviews in Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina, I had to rethink some of the project foci in 2020-2021. Since then, I focused on more generally relevant and comparative issues, such as the problems of reception of international assistance in the post-conflict space, gender aspects of the neoconservative politics, and the problems of social inequality associated with the neoliberal trends in the postsocialist regions.
The dissemination of research findings and their comparative and theoretical aspects, which took place at a number of venues (before the pandemics) are presented in detail in the attached report.
Covid-19 related restrictions have delayed the implementation of a number of project activities. Some of these could not be realized until the time when immunization became available. I continue reporting on the project's results after its formal ending.
The following tasks still lie ahead in order to reach the results that were initially scheduled:
-Research among the beneficiaries of the Turkish aid for cultural reconstruction in Bosnia-Herzegovina, esp., investigating local responses to the TIKA-assisted reconstruction of the war-torn Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar, and several other Ottoman-era heritage sites. Research on these sites will serve to further investigate Turkish involvement in the reconstruction of Ottoman heritage as a demonstration of Turkey’s agenda in the international peacebuilding process in the region.
The following tasks still lie ahead in order to reach the results that were initially scheduled:
-Research among the beneficiaries of the Turkish aid for cultural reconstruction in Bosnia-Herzegovina, esp., investigating local responses to the TIKA-assisted reconstruction of the war-torn Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar, and several other Ottoman-era heritage sites. Research on these sites will serve to further investigate Turkish involvement in the reconstruction of Ottoman heritage as a demonstration of Turkey’s agenda in the international peacebuilding process in the region.