Turkey Joins the Great Power Club Vying for Influence in the Western Balkans

Published by A. Gagaridis in Publication · 31 May 2018
Tags: Balkans, Serbia, UE, Turkey, Geopolitics

The Western Balkans remain a delicate area in geopolitical terms.

Identity-based tension persists in a context where external powers try to extend their influence to pursue their own interests. This is notably the case in Serbia, which can be seen as a regional pivot.

While the EU seems the best poised to include the area in its sphere of influence, the Balkan enlargement process presents various difficulties and it is debatable how much benefit the EU will actually take from it.

But what causes more concerns for regional stability is probably Turkey's aim to leverage on local Muslim minorities for its own geopolitical purposes; because this risks of renewing the inter-ethnic conflict that had such catastrophic effects on the region through its recent history.

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