Turkey and Saudi Arabia as Theo-political Actors in the Balkans: The Case of Bulgaria.

• Author: Telci, Ismail Numan
• Position: ARTICLE - Case study

Introduction

Bulgaria has been historically a strategic country that served as a center for Balkan politics. This status has given Sofia an attractive position for regional and global actors, which aim to play a role in the Balkans. While the country was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for centuries, the post-World War period changed this picture. Russia became a more influential actor in Bulgarian political and social life, however with its historic and ethnic ties, Turkey continued to play an important role. Following the end of the Cold War, Bulgaria has become the target of other international players. The European Union has played a great role in Bulgaria's rapprochement with the West and this opened up the country to the influence of other actors, including Saudi Arabia. Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia have approached the country through its Muslim minority, who are largely ethnic Turks, actively engaging in the religious sphere amongst the Muslims in Bulgaria.

As a result, the country has witnessed an increase in religious activities of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the two leading powers in the Muslim world. The main reason for this is that 15 percent of Bulgaria's population is Muslim. Despite them having different motivations, both Ankara and Riyadh consider Bulgaria as a sphere of influence. Both countries have realized that through closer engagement with this population in Bulgaria, they would become more influential actors in Balkan politics.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of Yugoslavia was a great opportunity for Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Saudi Arabia found the chance to make new allies in the Balkans and Turkey to become close to the previously Ottoman lands. The Iranian Revolution in 1979 was the first time that the Kingdom felt really threatened and it concertedly started exporting its own ideology. A more recent and important event in the Arab world that affected Saudi Arabia was the Arab Spring in 2011. This demonstrated to the Arab countries that their environment is not at all stable and they need to look for new allies in order to maintain their balance. The fact that the rights of the Muslims in Bulgaria have been consistently violated, the long and hard 'cleansing' process, and the dynamics in the region have caused a vacuum not only in the political, economical, and social sphere, but in the religious one too. The country was not able to fill this vacuum, so Saudi Arabia and Turkey 'came to the aid of the Muslims.' Under this guise, they carry out activities to provide religious services to the Muslim community in Bulgaria with both official religious institutions and informal instruments. These services vary from building mosques and religious schools to sending imams, providing scholarships, publishing Islamic books, and delivering financial aid.

Both countries have different motivations for delivering services to Muslims in Bulgaria. While Turkey approaches Bulgarian Muslims on the basis of their shared cultural and historical similarities as well as similar ethnic identity, Saudi Arabia's main aim is to spread their religious ideology, Wahhabism. As a result of these differing agendas, Turkish and Saudi endeavors in Bulgaria, have received differing reactions from the local Muslims. This is mainly because of the fact that Bulgarian Muslims consider Turkish activities as more suitable to their needs, in terms of ideological and practical aspects, while Saudi Arabia's schemes are considered as strategically motivated. To put it differently, it can be observed that while delivering services in Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia's main aim is to expand their Wahhabi ideology to Muslims in this country. This is in line with Saudi Arabia's overall policy of expanding its religious ideology beyond its borders.

However, the religious understanding among Bulgaria's Muslims is completely different from that of Saudi Arabia. The concept of religion in Saudi Arabia, which has been shaped by the Wahhabi ideology since its foundation, is seen as a radical interpretation of Islam, which is also known as Salafism. On the other hand, Muslims in Bulgaria for many years remained under the administration of the Ottoman Empire and later adopted Islam in the interpretation of their close relationship with Turkey. For this reason, Saudi Arabia's religious projects in Bulgaria are a worry to Muslims living in this country as well as to the Bulgarian government.

Hence, this study focuses on Turkey and Saudi Arabia's religious endeavors in Bulgaria and evaluates how the Muslims in Bulgaria have responded to these two approaches. In doing so, the study initially focuses on the increasing Islamic involvement in Bulgaria by external actors and explores the Turkish and Saudi Arabia activities in detail. Another dimension of the study is to reveal how these religious projects of Turkey and Saudi Arabia may affect the wider socio-political life in Bulgaria.

Considering the limited literature on the subject, the study is of great importance for scholars who wish to make sense of external religious involvement in Bulgaria as well as in the Balkans. The study is especially important for Bulgarian authorities in order to understand the real motivations behind religious activities of Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the country. Another aim of this study is to encourage further studies that focus on religious endeavors of external actors in the Balkan region.

Increasing Islamic Endeavors of External Actors in Bulgaria

Bulgaria has a very strategic location, between Asia and Europe, so the country is in some way a 'corridor' between both regions. It is a part of the Western sanitary cordon, located in the Balkan geopolitical knot where the interests of global geopolitics have often been confronted. The proximity of Bulgaria to the Caucasian and Middle East geopolitical nodes, the key areas of Bosporus and Dardanelles, the Danube, the Black Sea, and the Adriatic Sea, makes the country a subject of interest. The Balkan geopolitical knot is a hotspot for the interests of Eurasia, Atlantic, and the Islamic world. (1) Therefore, the Great Powers have always desired to gain more influence in this strategic region.

The country has also its particular strategic value. Bulgaria has the largest percentage of Muslims as a percentage of its total population among the European Union member countries. The Muslim population in the country is more than one million, equivalent to 13 percent of the total population although some estimate this number to be even higher. (2) Although Muslims in Bulgaria have experienced difficulties in the past, they have been able to preserve their Islamic identity until today. (3) The main reason behind this is the strong attachment of Bulgaria's Muslims to their cultural and historical ties with Turkey. The ethnic, familial, and religious cross-border bonds have allowed Bulgaria's Muslims to preserve their identity for many years.

Historically, however, Muslims in Bulgaria have faced difficult times over the last century. Between 1946 and 1989, the Bulgarian Turks' rights were consistently violated because of their ethnic and religious identity. The pressure imposed on the minorities by the Jivkov Administration, which started in 1956, significantly increased in the following period. (4) The state of Bulgaria carried out various programs in order to assimilate the Turks in the country. Between 1960 and 1976 the country implemented a policy of forced name change against the Muslim Pomaks (5) and Turks. People were prohibited from having the Qur'an in their homes and visiting mosques. Muslims were prevented from taking an active role in political life as well as administrative and economic sectors. Fasting, religious practices such as circumcision and Islamic marriage, as well as speaking Turkish in public places were forbidden under the policy of forming a socialist single nation-state. Due to increasing pressure, more than 300,000 Turks undertook a mass migration to Turkey in the summer of 1989. (6)

Following the Jivkov era, political life in Bulgaria changed dramatically. The collapse of the Soviet Union made a significant impact on the country and Sofia's approach to Muslim Turks changed for the positive. Bulgaria ended the assimilation policies and started developing its relations with Turkey. The years of migration to Turkey have created an advantageous situation for Turkey, gaining an important place in Turkey's foreign policy toward Bulgaria. Over the years, the most important factor in Turkish-Bulgarian relations has become the Turkish minority through which Turkey played a role in Bulgarian politics.

There are other Muslim countries that were also interested in the problems of Bulgaria's Muslims. Saudi Arabia has been one of the leading countries in this regard. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia increased its involvement in Bulgaria's religious sphere by engaging with Muslims in the country. Increasing Saudi religious activities in Bulgaria have caused Turkey to also increase its involvement, eventually, resulting in a competition between the two countries. This competition was further escalated, as the efforts by the Bulgarian government were not enough to address issues of Muslims in the country.

A further reason for external involvement in Bulgaria was the power vacuum in the post-Soviet era. Bulgaria was very much under the influence of the Soviet Union in terms of political, cultural, and religious life. When the Soviet Union collapsed many countries in the Balkans, including Bulgaria, became open to the interference of more powerful regional and international actors.

The disintegration of Yugoslavia and the collapse of the Yugoslavian economic system were also significant in allowing external actors to become influential players in Bulgaria. (7) The Balkan states, including Bulgaria were directly affected by those developments both politically and...