Turkey has improved its relations with its traditional enemies to assume the role of patron and mediator in the Western Balkans.
Turkey occupies an outsized place in the national imaginations of many Balkan countries – and vice versa. Skanderbeg, Albania’s national hero, is famous for leading a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of the modern Turkish state.
The Ottoman Empire controlled the Balkans for centuries, and military victories – like Skanderbeg’s – as well as defeats were remembered by the most staunch nationalists. Serbian martyrs who died fighting the Ottomans during the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, which resulted in a Serbian defeat, are commemorated each year in Serbia on the Vidovdan holiday. Centuries of battles between Serbs and Ottomans were invoked by Serbian nationalists in the 1990s, who justified the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Bosnian Muslims as “revenge on the Turks“.
The centuries of Ottoman control over the Balkans resulted in significant cultural exchange and is also an important part of Turkish history. Many Ottoman imperial wives who gave birth to sultans were Albanian, Bosnian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Romanian, and many Turks today are descended from Muslim emigrants and refugees from the Balkans during the contraction of the Empire Ottoman. Some Turks claim that the Turkish flag – with a white star and a crescent on a red banner –emerged during the bloody campaigns in Kosovo.
With so much shared history, it is not surprising that Turkey is today an active player in the geopolitics and cultural diplomacy of the Balkans. But what is perhaps shocking is the extent to which Turkey has improved its relations with its recent enemies to assume the role of a widely respected protector and mediator in the region.
Good relations with everyone?
When recently re-elected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, the Yugoslav wars had ended only a year earlier and Kosovo was under United Nations administration. Turkey had supported the Muslim populations of Bosnia and Kosovo against ethnic cleansing campaigns by Serbian forces, and Erdoğan’s government recognized Kosovo’s independence in 2008, just one day after its declaration.
Some sources claim there are more Kosovar Albanians living in Turkey than in Kosovo itself. Visiting Kosovo in 2013, Erdoğan said, “We all belong to a common history, a common culture, a common civilization; we are the brothers of this structure. Remember, Turkey is Kosovo, Kosovo is Turkey!
Prishtina maintains warm relations with Erdoğan’s government. Kosovo banned Kurdish music event – drawing to rent out » from Turkish state media which said the event would have spread propaganda in favor of Kurdish groups that Ankara considers terrorists. At the beginning of May, Turkey book Bayraktar TB2 drones in Kosovo.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama supported Erdoğan ahead of Turkey’s presidential elections in May, saying“For Albania and Albanians, President Erdoğan is a good friend in some of the most difficult days, from the day of Kosovo’s independence, Turkey being the first to recognize it, to the tragedy of the earthquake of land in Albania, where Turkey is supporting hundreds of affected families. building new homes or helping get vaccinated against the deadly virus, while others were too busy with their own problems.
But Rama was not the only Balkan leader to support Erdoğan’s re-election. Milorad Dodik, the Serbian nationalist president of Republika Srpska, also announced his support. The Turkish government is a strong supporter of Bosnian Muslims, and Erdoğan was the first to do so. best man at the wedding of the daughter of Bakir Izetbegovic, leader of the Bosnian Democratic Action Party.
Erdoğan’s government has also improved relations with Serbia. Turkey considers Serbia an important country for the stability of the region and, despite recognizing Kosovo’s independence, Erdoğan has managed to establish close ties with Belgrade.
During a visit to the Serbian capital in 2017, local crowds cheered Erdoğan and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, a Serbian nationalist, sang Turkish folk music to Erdoğan. In a phone call With Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić on July 6, Erdoğan declared that Serbian-Turkish relations were at their highest level in history – a statement he also made in 2019.
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) is active throughout the Balkans and spends tens of millions of euros each year restoring Ottoman-era structures. It worked on over 80 years old Mosques, madrasas, clock towers, Turkish baths and Ottoman-era bridges across the Balkans, including the iconic Tirana Ethem Bey Mosquethe Sinan Pasha Mosque in Prizren and the Ottoman structures inside the Belgrade Fortress.
Humanitarian and strategic interests
Although Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it maintains relatively friendly relations with Russia which allow it to play a mediating role between Ukraine and Russia (as grain deal sponsored by the UN, which nevertheless failed). July 17 after Russia’s withdrawal).
It is this perception of neutrality that has given it credibility with Bosnian-Serb and Serbian leaders who, moreover, are wary of NATO’s actions in the region, particularly in Kosovo.
Amid heightened tensions in northern Kosovo that peaked in late 2022 and again in June this year, Erdoğan sought to once again play the role of mediator. He has spoken frequently with Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Vučić since the start of the crisis to facilitate dialogue. After clashes between Kosovo Serbs and the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR), Turkey sent a battalion of reinforcements at KFOR in June and is expected take command of KFOR this fall.
While Erdoğan’s government initially opposed Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, it supported NATO’s expansion into the Western Balkans. Ankara views membership in NATO and the European Union as stabilizing forces for the region and, unlike in the Middle East – where Turkey frequently clashes with the interests of other NATO countries – its interests in the Balkans align with those of Brussels.
The EU remains a much larger donor than Turkey in the Western Balkans, but Turkish foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region remains an important driver of economic development. The Balkan Peninsula is literally the gateway to Europe for trade from Anatolia and its stability remains of great importance to Turkey for both humanitarian and strategic reasons.
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