Neo-Ottomanisme? Nieuwe strategieën van Turkije en de impact van buitenlandse hulp op naoorlogse culturele reconstructie op de Balkan. (NeOtstraTurkBalk)

This project seeks to find out how foreign assistance in the fields of culture, religious revival and education change regions ravaged by inter-ethnic violence and state breakdown, and how such foreign assistance is perceived locally. My case study is the assistance provided from the Turkish Republic to Bosnia-Herzegovina, and local responses to it. The empirical research will focus on Turkish aid in the areas of higher education, religious studies, and the rebuilding of Ottoman-era monuments. This project sets 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 analysis poses following questions: How do the interpretations of the historical legacy of the Ottoman Empire in the post-Yugoslav region correspond with actual policies of aid that the Republic of Turkey provides as a major donor, especially for postwar reconstruction projects in Bosnia-Herzegovina? What sort of changes in the political and popular culture in the beneficiary country can we observe as a result of Turkish aid in the areas of culture, higher education and religious education, according to local responses in Bosnia-Herzegovina? What is the interaction between the fears of Neo-Ottomanism as an alleged expansionist and ‘Islamization’ program of Turkey in the Balkans and the anti-Turkish, anti-Muslim discourses as a recent characteristic of the populist rhetoric in several European Union states?