Turkey’s Religion Policy in Eurasia

Date

2026-01-01

Author

Çıtak Aytürk, Zana Ayşe

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This chapter analyzes the main dimensions of Turkey’ s religion policy in Eurasia, particularly in Central Asia and the Caucasus. It will first examine the leading actor of Turkey’ s religion policy in Eurasia, namely the Diyanet, and the variety of its activities, including constructing mosques, educating religious personnel, sending imams, and distributing religious publications. It will then inquire into Turkey’ s religion policy in Eurasia. This study argues that while Turkey has demonstrated a heavy presence in the region, it has not been without its challenges. Turkey’ s religious presence began with several advantages, such as an international context for a very active Turkish presence, linguistic and cultural affinities, and a strong religious institutional infrastructure of the Diyanet already in place. However, several setbacks, such as the lack of knowledge about the Islamic traditions of Eurasian societies, at least at the initial stages, the Soviet legacy on the official religious policies of the Eurasian states, and the loss of Turkey’ s credibility due to the sudden and radical shift in its policy after the breakdown of the coalition between the AKP and the Glenists have weakened Turkey’ s role in the religious field in Eurasia.

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https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=105035392079&origin=inward
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/119233

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Department of International Relations, Book / Book chapter