Turkey increases political influence in the Western Balkans

With a height of 50 meters and space for around 8,000 worshippers, the Namazgjah Mosque in Albania's capital, Tirana, is one of the most impressive places of Islamic worship in the Western Balkans.

It was partly funded with around 30 million euros ($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 about ten years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to Tirana to inaugurate the mosque. While there, he signed an agreement to cooperate with Albania in agriculture and education, and donated a number of Turkish-made drones to the country. The Diyanet also secured influence on the board of the new mosque and a Turkish imam was appointed, which caused discontent 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 expert at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, told DW. Building mosques as a means of projecting soft power is also closely linked to advancing economic, political and military interests, she explained. "But local actors have room to maneuver and they are using it," Clayer added.

However, even if a mosque is built with external funding, the initiative usually starts with local communities, who also cover part of the costs. In the case of representative religious buildings in capitals, the interests of national and external actors are also taken into account, as Clayer emphasized. "The prestige of a country, the needs of the Muslim community, national self-confidence, the claims made regarding other religions: all these are factors that play a role in the construction of a place of worship and in the choice of architectural models," she told DW.

Turkey surpasses Saudi Arabia
Today, Turkey is the leading nation in terms of funding new mosques in the Western Balkans. However, this was not the case in the early years after 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 after Erdogan came to power in 2002 and 2003 that Turkey increasingly took the lead.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has increasingly retreated 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 restoring Saudi Arabia’s historic mosques and preserving its cultural heritage. It’s all part of his Vision 2030, a series of reforms that prioritizes economic and social change in Saudi Arabia.

Erdogan's "infrastructural imperialism"
Turkey sees itself as the heir to the Ottoman Empire and emphasizes 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, financing the construction of mosques is just one element of Turkey's infrastructure policy, not only in the Western Balkans, but also in the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, the construction of mosques must be seen in a broader geopolitical context, the expert said.

Whether it's railway lines, ports, hotels or commercial areas: Turkish investors are on the move from Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Batumi in Georgia, from Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, to Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus and Senegal.

Astana's futuristic skyline, for example, was largely built by Turkish construction companies, according to Bryant. Many of the 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 that includes the presidential palace, parliament building, large hotels and a mosque (which was not yet completed at the time of the inauguration) in May 2024 are "geopolitical places where Turkey expresses its ideas about the future," as Bryant explained.
According to her, Erdogan is relying 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. Translated by DW