President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during his first visit of 2022 to Albania, delivered a speech at the Albanian Parliament, inaugurated an earthquake housing development and opened the Ottoman-era Ethem Bey Mosque restored by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).
Along with other ceremonies and high-level meetings, the inauguration of the housing development in the northwestern town of Laç represented the most important part of the visit, attesting to the sincere bond shared by the two countries.
The Albanian people suffered considerably after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck in November 2019, destroying almost an entire city, killing 51 people and displacing nearly 17,000. The complex, financed and built by Turkey, meant a lot for Albanian citizens – hundreds of people gathered in the streets to welcome the Turkish president.
Relations between Albania and Turkey have intensified in recent years, a result of deepening ties between the Balkans and Turkey. Erdoğan stated several times that the "histocompatibility" of the two countries is “just natural and a fact” that the cultural exchange that has existed for centuries established the undeniable strength today.
As a result of the contact between Albanians and Turks throughout history, the number of Albanians living in Turkey is higher than in Albania itself. Elements like food, language and religion are evidence of the close ties.
Turkey is one of Albania’s largest investors, especially in terms of infrastructure, and the bilateral trade target is $1 billion (TL 13.35 billion) in annual trade.
Decades of communist rule under Enver Hoxha left traces of trauma for generations. After the end of the Cold War, the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the emergence of new Balkan states and the following war and conflict, the EU’s “strategic silence” and constant identity crises created a level of unprecedented collaboration between Turkey and Albania, which have maintained relations over hundreds of years – two natural allies in a highly hostile environment.
While the crises in the ‘90s turned Balkan states into archenemies, neighboring states, as well as the EU, were not always there to provide solace in hard times. However, the role of Turkey in the Balkans, in the words of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, has been an “indispensable, inalienable and no doubt a constructive role for peace.”
One could not deny that the Ottoman Empire has an inalienable imperial legacy on the Balkan’s existing ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. The communist rule and a long-lived policy of heathenizing most of the Balkan territories left this diversity a fragile and unreliable hard-liner in the decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Muslim communities especially were instantaneously targeted, forced into conflicts, killed or the targets of genocidal policies, and left in a deprived political and economic condition with the lack of efficient leadership. All of these were experienced in the heart of Europe not a whole century ago but just while I was a child and while my mother was working for a humanitarian aid agency for solidarity with Bosnians during the conflict in the early ‘90s.
While the Balkans are neither homogenous nor unprecedentedly unique in their political structures, the relationship between Turkey and the Balkans – being a natural part of the Ottoman past — has flourished, creating a strategic partnership through common heritage.
Turkey’s infrastructure and developmental investments are not limited to Albania. Turkey opened a highway between Belgrade and Bosnia-Herzegovina that will connect Bosnia-Herzegovina to the other Balkan states. Additionally, Turkey is the third-largest investor in Kosovo, and the TIKA is restoring and rebuilding the cultural heritage of the Ottoman era in different parts of the region. These flagship projects are connecting towns, people, cultures and histories.
Turkey recently opened a consulate in Novi Pazar, a province in Serbia mainly populated by Bosniak Muslims.
Erdoğan’s visits to the Balkans and the visits of leaders of Balkan states to Istanbul and Ankara are more than frequent. In August 2021, Erdoğan embarked on a small Balkan tour, visiting Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro and has hosted Balkan leaders many times in Turkey’s capital. When ongoing crises in Bosnia-Herzegovina peaked, Istanbul witnessed a very striking visit of Milara Dodik, the Serbian member of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s tripartite, and Bosnian leader Bakir Izzetbegoviç last November.
The very same day that Erdoğan returned to Turkey from Albania, Serbian President Alexandar Vucic paid a visit to Ankara, and the two leaders addressed the Bosnian crises in a joint press conference. The dizzying diplomatic traffic between Turkey and Balkan states and all these close encounters evidently show that Turkey’s Balkan policy is not guided by an encompassing ideology but through an open cooperative strategic partnership.
Erdoğan’s relationship with Balkan leaders is more than excellent. Both Turks and the president accept that Bosnia-Herzegovina is bequeathed from Aliya Izzetbegoviç and his memoir, teachings and his wisdom are well greeted by the Turkish public today. Erdoğan’s relationship with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is more than friendly, and his vision on Serbia makes Vucic a close friend as well.
Modern Turkey, a NATO ally and a pending EU candidate for decades, is revamping its Balkan policy to restore its geopolitical influence across the Balkan countries. The Turkic struggle of stimulating forgotten heritage via schooling, hospital services and construction is accompanied by an intensified diplomatic engagement in the region. All these mark Turkey’s foreign policy of embarking on a historical upswing in recent years.
As a home for different cultures, ethnicities and religions, Ankara is asking that the Balkans not succumb to crises and conflicts, not to burn bridges or close doors, but to talk to each other in a decent diplomatic language, which is exactly what both the Balkans and the world need today. Turkey’s role as a balancing influence in the Balkans and negotiator for conflicts in the region poses a challenge for the EU in its backyard.
Still, as prior to the Albanian visit, there are problems and unresolved aspects in bilateral relations. The Albanian ideological support for the PKK-related circles and the members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) sheltering and gaining political recognition on Albanian soil were some of the top issues that Erdoğan addressed in his meeting with Rama.
Whether relations are already warm or are gaining importance with the passage of time, Turkey’s influence in the Balkans always counted on Balkan elites and countries. Turkey's stance on the Balkans is far-reaching, beyond the textbook generalization of “neo-Ottomanism,” an arbitrator rather than an imperial uncle for the unnecessary conflicts between the Balkan powers.
