The good old days?
Talk of an Ottoman revival in the region seems exaggerated
“SARAJEVO won today as much as Istanbul,” declared Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, after his election victory in June. His comment excited new debate in the western Balkans about Turkey's activist foreign policy. Are the Ottomans coming back? Several examples suggest not.
In Ankara on October 22nd, Muslim politicians from Bosnia and Sandzak in Serbia praised the Turks for mending a rift between Serbia's two Islamic groups. The deal swiftly collapsed. The Turks were also praised in 2010 for reconciling Serbia with Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) politicians in Sarajevo. Yet relations between Bosniak, Serb and Croat politicians in Bosnia remain icy. A recent poll showed that views of Turkey in the region divide pretty clearly between Muslims (pro) and Christians (anti).
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The good old days?”
From the November 5th 2011 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Europe
Hard-right populists are pushing their way into the mainstream
Their latest victory came in the Netherlands
The Brothers of Italy take the fight to Florence
The city is an opposition stronghold
Georgia’s government cosies up to Russia
Pro-Western Georgians seem powerless to stop it