Global Diyanet and Multiple Networks: Turkey's New Presence in the Balkans
TL;DR: The authors discusses four domains of the new Turkish presence: the intellectual and political networks in the Balkans around Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, non-conventional foreign policy actors of the Turkish state such as the Turkish Development Agency (TIKA) and the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), and finally Islamic grassroots organisations, such as Gulen movement.
Abstract: Turkey’s relations with the Muslim communities of Southeast Europe have changed significantly since the early 2000s, when Turkish actors largely replaced Wahhabi and Salafi missionaries. This paper discusses four domains of the new Turkish presence: The intellectual and political networks in the Balkans around Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu; non-conventional foreign policy actors of the Turkish state such as the Turkish Development Agency (TIKA) and the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet); and finally Islamic grassroots organisations, such as the Gulen movement. United by a common imaginary of neo-Ottomanism’, these actors have contributed to the strengthening of the established Islamic communities and to the visibility of the Ottoman tradition of Hanafi Islam in the Balkans.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and focused on the Diyanet's new role in the pol...
Abstract: Numerous studies have analyzed Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. This article focuses on the Diyanet’s new role in the pol...
20 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on Turkey and argue that by instrumentalizing the Diyanet (Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs), the authoritarian Islamists in power have been able to consolidate manufactured populist dichotomies via the weekly Friday sermons.
19 citations
Cites background from "Global Diyanet and Multiple Network..."
...…to control the religious sphere and transform the sociology in line with the agenda of the hegemon political power in Turkey (Gözaydın 2008; Öktem 2012; Lord 2018; Öztürk 2018; Adak 2021); or discusses how it is utilized by the current Turkish regime in foreign relations/policy to…...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors focused on the historical evaluations of Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (the Diyanet) since its foundation and tried to explain the importance of some of the substantial turning points of Turkey’s history on the operasonalisations of the diyanet both at home and abroad.
Abstract: This articles focuses on the historical evaluations of Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs (the Diyanet) since its foundation and tries to explain the importance of some of the substantial turning points of Turkey’s history on the operasonalisations of the Diyanet both at home and abroad. Therefore, it seeks answers of these very fundamental research questions; What is the significance of the Diyanet in terms of both state and religion relations, and politics in Turkey? What are the differences of the Diyanet’s impact and functions compare to its foundation period? Why and how does Turkey use the Diyanet as a foreign policy tool? How does the Diyanet’s influence differ in foreign countries’ contexts? What factors determine the Diyanet’s scopes in different foreign countries?
17 citations
Cites background from "Global Diyanet and Multiple Network..."
...Currently, Diyanet is present abroad with religious affairs consultants within embassies and religious affairs attachés within consulates of the Republic of Turkey in countries with citizens and kin (Öktem 2012: 51)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess the significance of the activities organized for Turkish women migrated to Europe, and assess the importance of women's contribution in this respect, and how do the activities of Diyanet women preachers in Europe reflect Turkey's current diaspora policies.
Abstract: Since the early 2000s, an increasing number of female religious officers have been employed by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and regularly sent to European countries. Tasked with providing religious knowledge and moral support to women, their engagement epitomises Diyanet’s contribution to the AKP government’s wide-ranging international mission aimed at reaching Turkish citizens living abroad. To assess the significance of the activities organised for Turkish women migrated to Europe, the paper aims to answer the following questions: How does the ‘export’ of Diyanet female religious officers fit into Diyanet’s grip on international affairs? What is women’s contribution in this respect? And how do the activities of Diyanet women preachers in Europe reflect Turkey’s current diaspora policies? Drawing on ethnographic observation and interviews with the Diyanet female officers in Vienna and Stockholm mosques, this contribution concludes that Diyanet officers’ role and agency abroad is the result of a combination of two concomitant and interconnected factors The paper argues that female religious officers’ activities abroad should be included in a multifaceted reconfiguration of: i) the Diyanet’s long lasting international mission; ii) the role women play in the diffusion of religious knowledge and morality; iii) the boundaries between Turkey’s religious and diaspora policies.
16 citations
Cites background from "Global Diyanet and Multiple Network..."
...…international mission has been investigated by a vast scholarship (Akgönül 2005; Allievi & Nielsen 2003; Avci 2005; Sunier & Landman 2014; Sunier et al. 2011) who examined how the institution has risen to prominence as a foreign policy actor (Öktem 2012; Yurdakul & Yükleyen 2009; Yükleyen 2011)....
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Dissertation•
13 May 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the implications of the post-Kemalist changes in Turkey on Outside Turks communities in the case of Kosovar Turks and offered a norm-based analysis of the constitutive relationship between domestic politics and foreign policy formation and conduct.
Abstract: This thesis is about foreign policy analysis and what it could learn from an examination of Turkey`s Outside Turks policy. More specifically, the thesis explores the implications of the post-Kemalist changes in Turkey on Outside Turks communities in the case of Kosovar Turks and offers a norm-based analysis of the constitutive relationship between domestic politics and foreign policy formation and conduct. Throughout the thesis, accordingly, the domestic norms guiding the way Turkey approaches Outside Turks, the conduct of domestic norms-guided Outside Turks policy and, finally, the implications of such policy for the Kosovar Turks are explored. Based on this, the study establishes firstly that the traditional policy of transforming the religiously defined Turkish speaking Muslim communities in the surrounding countries to nationally thinking and acting ethnic Turkish communities has changed after 1980s, but particularly during the Justice and Development Party rule. The aspiration shifted towards imagining Outside Turks in cultural and religious lines, other than in purely ethnic sense. Thus invoking and safeguarding the practice of Muslim identity, history and culture became a priority concern in the Outside Turks policy agenda. The thesis secondly establishes that this shift in approach has been generated by four post-Kemalist norms, namely Ottomania, de-ethnicized nationhood, Turkish Islam, and Islamic Internationalism. These post-Kemalist norms have manifested themselves as practices of transforming the ethnically mobilized and behaving Turkish community in Kosovo as religiously and historico-culturally thinking and acting community. The thesis thirdly establishes that the post-Kemalist approach to the Outside Turk community in Kosovo has been constitutive for the community. Accordingly, Turkey?s anti-nationalist practices and activities of restoring inter-ethnic relations in Ottoman lines have partly relieved the relations between Turks and Albanians, facilitated the transcending of ethnicity as a bases for organizing relations, and increased the scope for collaboration between Muslim communities in the country. However, such post-Kemalist policies could not deconstruct the dominant nationalist framings, it has rather been counter-productive. Therefore, due to the post-Kemalist approach, the ethnic Turkish identity has been sharpened, Ottomans have been ethnicized as a Turkish emperorship, the nationalism gained a reactionary character, and people now believe that their ethnic survival is jeopardized by Turkey?s anti-nationalism or ?anti-Turkism? as the community calls it. This in return has led the community to further embrace Kemalist frames and discourses to resist Turkey?s post-Kemalist approach and norms. The thesis, consequently, introduced a norm-based foreign policy analysis model for examining the overseas implications and influences of domestic norms and norm changes.
16 citations
References
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Book•
07 Jun 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, the state of education in Turkey is described as follows: "The State of Education, The State of Belief, The Nation and Market, National and Market 5. Nation and Army 6.
Abstract: Contents Acknowledgments xxxx Pronunciation of Turkish xxxx Preface xxxx 1. Educational Foundations 1 2. The State of Education 3. Nation and Faith 4. Nation and Market 5. Nation and Army 6. Educational Postfoundations Bibliography Index
110 citations
Book•
01 Dec 1993
TL;DR: The Arabs, the Slavs and the Arnauts Muslim scholars of Bosnia, Macedonia and Albania Sufi movements and orders in the Balkans and their links with Central Asia Muslim heroes of Bosnia and Albania Albanian Sufi poets of the 18th and 19th centuries Albanians in the Arab world the Arab East and North Africa and the Balkans as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The Arabs, the Slavs and the Arnauts Muslim scholars of Bosnia, Macedonia and Albania Sufi movements and orders in the Balkans and their links with Central Asia Muslim heroes of Bosnia and Albania Albanian Sufi poets of the 18th and 19th centuries Albanians in the Arab world the Arab East and North Africa and the Balkans
94 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: Shadow Genealogies as mentioned in this paper explores identity transformations under conditions of intense sociopolitical change, focusing on the fragmentation of the once widespread urban Muslim communities known as the Sehirli into Turks and Albanians in the formative years of former Yugoslavia.
Abstract: "Shadow Genealogies" explores identity transformations under conditions of intense sociopolitical change. This book chronicles the fragmentation of the once-widespread urban Muslim communities known as the Sehirli into Turks and Albanians in the formative years of former Yugoslavia. This book is about the strategies that communities undertake in the face of rapid social change to protect their identities. Recreating identities under pressure forces communities to act like "cultural cannibals" who destroy and consume their own meaningful categories to emerge with alternative definitions or acceptable modes of survival. Based on intensive fieldwork in Macedonia, "Shadow Genealogies" demonstrates this process by weaving together the life histories of more than two hundred individuals across ninety well-known Muslim families.
16 citations