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The phenomenon of Wahhabism must have extraordinary stamina because it succeeded — after circling around the Islamic world since its initial appearance on the Arabian Peninsula in the middle of the 18th century — in reaching the Balkans and the remote and devastated village of Gornja Maoca in Bosnia at the beginning of the 21st century.

World media have given much attention to an event that took place in this village on the dawn of Feb. 2, 2010. More than 600 Bosnian police conducted a raid on the village, arresting seven people suspected by prosecutors of threatening the country’s “territorial integrity, constitutional order and provoking inter-ethnic and religious hatred.” Prosecutors said the police operation, in which European Union police also took part, was the largest since the end of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For the Bosnian public, the very name of the village and the outward semblance of the seven detained men — huge beards and shortened trousers — was enough to know that the target of the operation was people belonging to Wahhabism, one of most exclusive and radical branches of Islam. Although widely known as Wahhabis, named after their founder Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab (1703-1792), they call themselves Salafis — or descendants of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions and the first three generations of Muslims (salaf). Before last century’s inflow of extremist Egyptian Salafis to Saudi Arabia, they also called themselves muwahhidun.

It is well known how Abd-al-Wahhab, trying to introduce his rigid theory of purification of Islam from all thoughts but the Quran and Hadith, and destroying most sites, monuments and graves from early Islam, made a political pact with the Saudi clan from Najd. He and his followers challenged Ottoman pluralistic religious rule and tolerance, trying two times to establish their own state. They not only opposed other religions, but also taught that Sunni Islam was corrupted by Shiite Islam and other innovations. When Napoleon was conquering Egypt, they were destroying the holy Shiite city of Karbala. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and fully supported by the British, the Saudi sheiks finally succeeded in forming the modern state of Saudi Arabia, introducing strict Wahhabi Islam as the country’s religion. Using the wealth from newly discovered oil, and their capacity as the custodians of Mecca and Medina, Saudi-sponsored organizations began spreading Wahhabism throughout the Muslim world.

I will leave aside the wider assumptions about how that amalgamation — of the rigid theological sectarianism and tribal mentality with the interests of exploiters and consumers of the enormous oil wealth — has played a historical role in preventing the meeting and interaction between Islamic spiritual, scientific and cultural achievements from previous centuries and the political, scientific and cultural advancements of contemporary Western civilization. I will, however, ask what has become of the Balkans in general and Bosnia in particular as a result of such efforts.

When news about the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina started to spread throughout the world in 1992, hundreds of volunteers came from Russia and other Christian Orthodox countries to support the Serb aggressors, and hundreds more from Muslim countries came to fight together with their Muslim brothers, who were exposed to ethnic cleansing and slaughter. Only some of the Muslim volunteers were followers of Wahhabism. Most of those volunteers were young radical Arabs who had gained experience in the war in Afghanistan against the Russians. They formed a special unit called “Mujahideen,” which was mainly affiliated with the Bosnian Muslim army. Driven by religious hatred and fanaticism, some of them committed war crimes against Serb civilians and prisoners of war. Others were supported by Western intelligence agencies. While on a visit with Turkish President Süleyman Demirel to Zenica in the middle of the war — he was not allowed to visit the besieged Bosnian capital city of Sarajevo — I was told by a Bosnian police officer that he saw two mujahideen soldiers with British passports who were easily allowed by Croatian authorities to enter Bosnia. They all, however, whether followers of Wahhabism or not, did more harm to Bosnia than good, as will continue to be the case over the next 15 years.

Due to the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, and especially US pressure on the Bosniak leadership, the majority of around 1,000 mujahideen soldiers left the country after the war. A part of them, Wahhabis in particular, obtained Bosnian citizenship by marrying Bosnian Muslim women, covering them in a three-layered black hijab and excluding them completely from public life.

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Hajrudin Somun is the former Ambassador to Turkey of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Despite bitter memories of the postmodern coup of Feb. 28, 1997, in which the military overthrew a coalition government led by a now-defunct conservative party, Turkey is more hopeful than ever of settling its accounts with pro-coup factions within the military and getting its democratic system back on track on the coup’s 13th anniversary, reports Today’s Zaman.

Turkey’s has painful recollections of the Feb. 28 period because of the blow the military dealt to fundamental rights and freedoms. However, the country is seemingly more hopeful about its future, particularly in terms of a strong democracy and the supremacy of the rule of law. What has led to such optimism is an attempt by judicial bodies to settle accounts with the coup instigators of the recent past.

Turkey woke up to a pretty lively week on Feb. 22. A total of 49 retired and active duty members of the military were taken into custody as part of a civilian investigation into alleged coup plots, titled Balyoz (Sledgehammer) and Kafes (Cage). This was the highest-profile crackdown ever carried out on the military. On Friday, an additional 18 military officers were also detained. The subversive plots included blowing up mosques during Friday prayers, attacking a museum with bombs and other explosives during a visit by young students and turning stadiums into open-air prisons capable of holding tens of thousands of people if they challenged the coup troops.

“The world keeps changing. In full harmony, so does Turkey. Military values are losing their importance and grasp on civilian life. In Turkey, people increasingly object to military interventions [in politics]. They are raising their voices against the military’s role in politics,” stated Ali Bayramoğlu, a columnist for the Yeni Şafak daily. According to the columnist, however, Turkey still has a significant distance to cover in the fight against military takeovers and subversive plans to that end.

“This necessitates social transformation. The judiciary, politics and the media in Turkey are currently divided into two camps. Such a division is not common in the democratic world. We need to get rid of this division and this requires time,” he remarked.

In early 1997, uneasy with the existence of a conservative party — the Welfare Party (RP) — in government, the General Staff sought ways to do away with the government. The National Security Council (MGK) made several decisions during a meeting on Feb. 28 and presented them to then-Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, also the leader of the RP, for approval. Erbakan was forced to sign the decisions, and he subsequently resigned. The event has since been termed a “postmodern coup.”

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Armenia is ready to back out before it enters into a binding reconciliation agreement with its long-time foe, Turkey, reports Eurasianet.org

The Armenian parliament on February 25 approved legislative amendments by a 70-4 margin that make it easy for the country’s leaders to suspend or abrogate international treaties. In effect, the amendments enable the Armenian government to withdraw from protocols signed last October with Turkey that govern a process to normalize relations. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The protocols will enter force only after they are ratified by the two countries’ respective parliaments. So far, neither has done so.

Progress toward ratification has been at a standstill in recent weeks. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Officials and political analysts said that the amendments to the Law on International Treaties adopted on February 25 were a way for Armenia to hedge its bet on the reconciliation process. “”We will continue the process, the Armenian side wholeheartedly wishes for the protocols to become reality. However, we have to have necessary mechanisms for any possible scenario, and, come the need, the law will be applied to the protocols as well,” Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told EurasiaNet.

Representatives of the Heritage Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), two opposition parties with seats in parliament, said they weren’t fully satisfied with the amendments. Even so, the ARF voted with the governing coalition to approve the amendments. The Heritage Party opted to oppose them.

“This is a step forward, however, according to this draft only the executive branch will have the power to suspend the signing and ratification processes of international agreements, and we demand that the legislative branch also have this right,” ARF MP Armen Roustamian told EurasiaNet.

A Heritage leader, meanwhile, described the amendments as a “bad exit strategy.”

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Officials in Georgia believe that Kremlin skullduggery has succeeded in pulling the plug on a Georgian satellite television channel capable of broadcasting Russian-language content throughout the former Soviet Union, reports Eurasianet.com

In late January, Eutelsat, a French satellite broadcast operator, abruptly stopped transmission of Georgia’s First Caucasian channel, which was set up to promote Tbilisi’s viewpoint among Russian-speaking viewers. First Caucasian representatives say that Russian broadcast executives, acting at the Kremlin’s behest, were behind Eutelsat’s decision. The channel’s managers claim that Moscow wants to muzzle pro-Tbilisi broadcasts and to effectively block its ability to reach a Russian-speaking audience. [For additional information click here].

The direct cause for the shut-down is a supposed Eutelsat deal with Russian satellite company Intersputnik for broadcasts of a channel reportedly financed by Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled energy behemoth. First Caucasian representatives contend the Eutelsat’s deal with Intersputnik gave the Russian entity control of all 16 transponders on the French firm’s W7 satellite, which was being used by the Georgian broadcaster. As a result, Intersputnik effectively pushed First Caucasian off the air, according to representatives of Georgian Public Broadcasting (GPB), which financed the Russian-language channel.

During late-January discussions between GPB and Eutelsat representatives, the French firm reportedly offered to transmit First Caucasian on other satellites, but the Georgians refused, citing the fact that only the W7 satellite beams programming that is viewable in Russia with existing dishes, according to GPB’s version of events. Switching to different satellites would have required Russian viewers to purchase new dishes in order to receive the First Caucasian signal. During the same discussions, Eutelsat reportedly attributed the interruption in the transmission of First Caucasian broadcasts to hackers, GPB representatives contended.

“They [Eutelsat] have suddenly changed the initially discussed deal and proposed terms that are not realistic,” said First Caucasian Executive Producer Zurab Dvali. “We have reasons to believe that the Russians, who transmit many channels via Eutelsat satellites, have told them not to transmit our channel. É It is very regrettable that the French, who come here [to Tbilisi] and preach to us about democracy and freedom of speech, brush aside these concepts when it comes to business and politics.”

Citing an unnamed diplomat in Tbilisi, the right-wing Parisian daily Le Figaro reported on January 27 that Eutelsat is allegedly under pressure from Russia not to carry the channel. An anonymous Eutelsat employee also reported “interferences” that could terminate the company’s association with First Caucasian.

First Caucasian started broadcasting online on January 1 and launched test broadcasts on Eutelsat on January 15. Eutelsat stopped carrying the channel roughly a week later, television representatives say.

In response to queries from EurasiaNet, Eutelsat attributed the cessation of First Caucasian programming to the conclusion of the channel’s trial testing period. “For one week there was a test period of the channel, which has now finished, and we are now in discussion of future options,” Eutelsat spokesperson Vanessa O’Connor wrote in an email. “It is not company policy to comment on on-going negotiations, so we have no further comments at this stage.”

O’Connor on February 1 rejected accusations that Moscow exerted any influence on negotiations. She indicated that there were no immoveable obstacles that would prevent Eutelsat and First Caucasian from reaching a new deal.

Georgian Public Broadcasting Company General Director Gia Chanturia hinted to EurasiaNet that Eutelsat was reneging on contractual obligations. “We have a contract, which lays out the terms of the deal pretty clearly, but now they [Eutelsat representatives] are finding fault with everything — be it content, technical problems, finances or what have you,” Chanturia said.

Eutelsat operates the only two satellites in Europe that are “well positioned” to cover Russia and other former Soviet states, Chanturia added. “I assure you we will do everything to ensure that the original deal is implemented,” he said.

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Mustafa AKYOL for the Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review

Dear friends,

I hope all is well in the Holy Land. Things are not too bad here in Turkey. Yet one thing that certainly does not look great is relations between our countries, which hit an ugly low this week.

In fact, since the beginning of your government’s “Operation Cast Lead” in Gaza, which happened a year ago, a continual war of words has been going on between your leaders and ours.

But no war of words has ever helped anybody. So, as a humble commentator on Turkish affairs who would be happy to see better Israeli-Turkish relations, let me offer a few honest thoughts.

The New Turkish Republic

First, we all should see something: The Turkish Republic of today is more democratic and more Muslim-minded than it ever used to be. And these two things are not contradictory at all. In the last decade, the power of the democratically elected government has steadily increased vis-à-vis the secularist bureaucratic elite that had dominated the country since the late ’20s. As a result, the cultural sensibilities of the majority of Turkish society, in which Muslimhood plays a great role, have become more influential in policymaking.

The practical result of this is that Turkey is ruled by people such as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has a greater emotional connection with the Muslim Palestinians, and not by the ultra-secular generals who look at the Islamic world with distaste. (I know that some of you think Turkey was doing much better under those generals, but I strongly suggest consulting with our liberals or Kurds, who tasted torture in military prisons or who saw their friends assassinated by the gendarme.)

This is not to say that everything that comes out of this more democratic Turkey is sensible – no, not at all. Some of the harsh rhetoric against Israel that we see in our media is indeed fueled by anti-Semitism, which exists within various political camps. The recent TV series that depicted the Israeli military as a bunch of sadists were indeed childish and silly. Turks are a highly emotional people and their anger against the carnage in Gaza, which I share, can easily lead to the vilification of Israel, which I criticize.

However, what I or you would prefer to see does not matter much here. What matters is that this New Turkish Republic, as political analyst Graham Fuller wisely calls it, is here to stay.

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Local people living near the frontier with Kosovo have had enough of constant tension and ‘incidents,’ which they say are further depressing the region’s prospects. Villagers in southern Serbia, near the border between Serbia and Kosovo, live in insecurity due to occasional incidents at the sensitive frontier. More and more are losing patience and leaving the region, reports BalkanInsight.com

Armed incidents do not happen that often, but they still keep people awake at night at least several times a year. The region is also exposed to the problem of organised crime. Locals are alarmed by the traffic of people illegally crossing the border, by smuggling and illegal logging.

The border zone remains a sensitive region. In 2000 and 2001 it was the scene of an armed conflict between the security forces and local ethnic Albanian militants in the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.

The new Serbian army base is another source of disquiet. Known as Jug, it officially opened last November near the mainly Albanian town of Bujanovac. While Serbian officials insist the base will guarantee peace and stability in the region, ethnic Albanians remain opposed to its opening.

Although experts and representatives of the Serbian Army say Southern Serbia is stable, people in the border villages, both Serbs and Albanians, do not feel especially safe.

Dragoslav Vasiljevic, from the village of Rasevac, near Kursumlija, says many of his neighbours have moved away because they don’t feel comfortable, close to the border. “Many have already moved out,” he said, “ and only around 50 have remained in the village, but I have nowhere else to go.”

Locals in the area reported a shooting incident near the dividing line on the night between January 4 and 5. “As soon as I heard shooting from the Kosovo side, I decided to get my weapon,” said one villager who lives only a few hundred metres from the border.

Locals claim by the sound of shooting from the Kosovo side disturbed them that night. Some also claim searchlights were pointed at their village, which made some head out to the outskirts with weapons.

Neither KFOR command in Kosovo nor the Serbian Army registered any incidents that night, however. The circumstances of the case have still not been cleared up.

About 150 kilometres to the southeast, on the part of the border near Bujanovac, Luan Sadiku, 26, an ethnic Albanian from the village of Lucani, says living with the fear of armed incidents is frustrating.

“My family and I cannot sleep peacefully because we are in constant fear of possible incidents,” says the young man, sitting with his friends in front of the grocer’s in this entirely Albanian village.

The area where Sadiku lives is one of the most sensitive border areas. It has seen the highest number of registered incidents. Gunmen wounded two members of the gendarmerie, the Serbian special police, in Lucani on July 10 last year.

Several days later, an explosion in a building in the overwhelmingly Albanian border town of Presevo injured two people. A police investigation established that an explosive device had been planted in the basement.

The perpetrators and circumstances of the incidents have not been revealed. Serbia’s President, Boris Tadic, and the Minister of Interior, Ivica Dacic, have described both incidents as terrorist acts.

A criminal group accused of trafficking people and narcotics was subsequently arrested. But there has been no official confirmation of a link between the gang and the two crimes.

Interior Minister Dacic said this week during visit to special police forces in the village of Miratovac, near Medvedja, that the security situation on the border remained stable but he also called on the government to invest more money in the region in order to stop people from emigrating.

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Turkey has been preoccupied with violence after seemingly innocuous disagreements resulted in ethnic clashes, reports the Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review. Last week, a Turkish mob attacked a Roma neighborhood in Manisa’s Selendi district in response to an argument over smoking indoors. While Roma who have been resettled condemn the racism in Seslendi, local Turks argue they are not guilty of any discrimination.

As local Roma were “exiled” in Manisa on Saturday in the aftermath of ethnic clashes, other locals claimed some Roma families were “as dangerous as gangs” and rejected claims the violence was connected to discrimination.

A patron at the teahouse in Manisa’s Seslendi district where the conflict began blamed the media for “showing Roma people as victims and other locals of Selendi as violent,” daily Radikal reported Sunday.

Teahouse owner Musa Yıldız said he warned Burhan Uçkun, a local Roma man, on New Year’s Eve not to smoke inside because of the recent ban on indoor smoking.

“He swore at me and hit me. I took a blow to my ear and my brother was also wounded in the head. His father swore at everyone, to our mothers, wives and mosques. That is why people reacted,” Radikal quoted Yıldız as saying. After the fight over smoking, the group went to the police department.

Meanwhile, Uçkun’s father, Nejdet Uçkun, died of cardiac arrest the same day.

Uçkun previously denied the quarrel over smoking and said the fight started when the owner of the teahouse refused to serve him tea.

Murat Yıldız, another local, told Radikal that Roma attacked them first. The teahouses’ patrons all agreed Seslendi’s Roma were pawn brokers, involved in petty crime, swore at people and drank lots of alcohol.

“The man who died, Nejdet Uçkun, swore at God all the time and God gave him what he deserved,” said İbrahim Dönmez, a retired imam in Selendi. Dönmez said the deceased was not ostracized by locals of the district despite having killed a man 25 years ago. “If we were racists, why did we let him live here then?” he asked.

Ethem Demirci, a retired teacher, said Roma women were carrying guns, claiming locals had left town because of pressure from the local Roma.

Due to the Selendi clashes, 13 Roma families were moved to the nearby district of Gördes, while seven families were sent to the Salihli district Saturday.

Those resettled in Salihli were greeted by local Roma with drums and dancing. Manisa’s Governorate rented houses for 28 people from the seven families, paying a year’s worth of rent. While entering Salihli, people shouted, “Down with Selendi.”

Selendi Mayor Nurullah Savaş, however, called on Roma people to return to Selendi. “We can live together as we have lived in peace until this point,” he said. “We never wanted them to go. There may be provocateurs in all communities; we are sorry about that,” daily Milliyet quoted him as saying Sunday. Savaş said he believed the residents of Selendi would agree with him.

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The wife of the man who killed seven CIA operatives in Afghanistan spoke to the Turkish press on Wednesday evening, expressing surprise at the events and disbelief over some of the theories surrounding her husband’s connections, reports Today’s Zaman.

Defne Bayrak, the Turkish wife of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, told Turkish media by telephone she was shocked at the news that her husband blew himself up at a base in Afghanistan on Dec. 30, killing himself and the CIA officers. Al-Balawi, a graduate of İstanbul University’s Çapa medical school, was born into a middle-class Kuwaiti family, moving with his family to Jordan in 1977 after Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait. Al-Balawi moved to Turkey in 1996 to attend medical school; Bayrak and al-Balawi were introduced by a mutual friend in 2001, and the two married, moving to Jordan in 2002 after al-Balawi graduated.

Bayrak, who lives in İstanbul, said her husband had plans to become a surgeon in Turkey and doubts he was working for the CIA. “I’ve read in newspapers the claims that he was connected to al-Qaeda or the CIA; I absolutely don’t believe in any such connection. My husband couldn’t be an agent. He was devoted to his family; he was a good father. He didn’t even like to leave the house much.”

Bayrak, an Arabic language translator for some Turkish media outlets, confirmed that al-Balawi was jailed for three days last March and left Jordan shortly after that, saying he was going to Pakistan to become a surgeon. After those plans did not work out, al-Balawi said he got another job there, Bayrak said.

Bayrak and her two daughters left Jordan in October and now live in İstanbul. “I was shocked when I heard the news [of the Afghanistan bombing] because he constantly spoke about coming to Turkey. … I was not expecting it,” she said.

“We had a very happy marriage. … I last saw my husband in person on March 18, and we last spoke by telephone a month ago. We had also last communicated via the Internet about 10 days ago. He didn’t mention anything out of the ordinary; he was fine. I was shocked when I heard about the [Afghanistan bombing]. … Our pain is great. My two daughters still don’t know their father is dead; I don’t know how to tell them,” she said.

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Serbia’s president Boris Tadic has spent the night in the Orthodox monastery of Visoki Decani in Kosovo after attending midnight mass on Wednesday, notwithstanding protests from local Albanians angered by his visit, reports Balkaninsight.com.

Tadic will also attend the Holy Liturgy on Thursday, making Christmas Day, which Orthodox Serbs celebrate according to the Julian calendar.

Tadic was flown into the medieval monastery by a NATO helicopter, amid tight security, where he spent the night with monks and locals.

He said his visit was a call for peace “to all people that share this difficult and complex area of the Balkans”, but made clear that he considers Kosovo to be a part of Serbia.

He said Belgrade would like to see Kosovo join the EU alongside, but as part of, Serbia.

“I would like to see not only Serbia — which means Kosovo — in the European Union, but all southeast countries, to be integrated in the European Union as soon as possible, I hope in 2014,” Tadic told journalists.

His visit, the second since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2007, has been marred in controversy, with many Albanians angry at their government for granting the visit to a statesman who refuses to recognise their country’s sovereignty.

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The Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process appears to be losing momentum. Recent statements made by Armenian leaders signal a toughening of Yerevan’s stance with Turkey, reports Eurasianet.org.

The signing of the reconciliation protocols in October generated considerable opposition in both Armenia and Turkey. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

In addition, the possibility of an Armenian-Turkish rapprochement has sown tension between Turkey and Azerbaijan, which is Ankara’s traditional strategic ally and Yerevan’s long-time foe. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Some analysts in Yerevan believe that President Serzh Sargsyan’s administration may have underestimated the depth of domestic public suspicion of Turkey that is fueling opposition to the protocols. Thus, in recent weeks the administration has appeared increasingly hesitant to move forward. “I think the process is suspended,” said Yervand Bozoyan, an independent political analyst. “Authorities [in Yerevan] were not quick to perceive what was going on in reality, but it’s better late than never.”

David Shahnazaryan, a senior figure in the main opposition movement, the Armenian National Congress, contended that the government is now scrambling to limit the domestic political damage. “Authorities are now seeking ways to alleviate the consequences of their mistakes,” Shahnazaryan said.

Legislative ratification in both countries is required for the protocols to take force. Given the strong opposition in both countries, neither parliament seems eager to make the first move toward sealing the reconciliation deal. In recent weeks, officials in Yerevan have shifted away from an optimistic tone, focusing instead on perceived efforts by Turkey to place conditions on its ability to proceed with the rapprochement effort.

Armenian concerns rose following a December 7 meeting in Washington between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Barack Obama. Turkish officials confirmed that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue was a central feature of those discussions.

Afterwards, Erdogan hinted that some movement on the Karabakh peace process would be necessary in order for Turkey to ratify the Armenian-Turkish protocols. The assumption among many in Yerevan is that Turkey would need Armenia to make fresh concessions on the Karabakh question that would somehow benefit Azerbaijan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

In response to Erdogan’s Washington comments, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, in a December 19 interview published in the Hurriyet Daily News, cautioned that if Turkey tried to link Karabakh progress to ratification of the protocols then Armenia “would be free” to impose conditions of its own.

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