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Turkish Religious Authority’s Budget Soars as Economic Crisis Deepens

October 23, 202012:28
Despite the worrying state of the economy, the annual budget of the Turkish Religious Authority, the Diyanet – one of President Erdogan’s favourite soft power tools – continues to balloon.
Ali Erbas, President of the Turkish Religious Authority, Diyanet. Photo: Diyanet

The Turkish parliament has approved the 2021 budget for the Turkish Religious Authority, the Diyanet, increasing it by 13 per cent compared to 2020, reaching the very sizeable sum of 13 billion Turkish liras, equal to 1.38 billion euros.

Unlike many other such institutions in the world, the Diyanet is a state institution under government control and its head, or Grand Mufti, is appointed by the President.

The Diyanet’s budget is now higher than that of seven government ministries, including the all-important foreign and interior ministries, as well as the state presidency and 13 top state directorates, including the National Intelligence Agency, MIT.

Opposition parties and experts say the constant hikes in the Diyanet’s budget reflect the way it has become a tool of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist government, to be employed in various circumstances, including the recent economic crisis and COVID-19 pandemic, in which Turkish society faces hard times.

“Under President Erdogan, the Diyanet has become a handy state apparatus, and the Diyanet has been used on many different issues, such as marriage or LGBTI rights. Because it has been used so widely, its personnel has increased and, in consequence, its budget, too,” Ahmet Erdi Ozturk, a professor of politics and religion at London Metropolitan University, told BIRN.

The head of the Diyanet, Grand Mufti Ali Erbas, used the middle of COVID-19 pandemic in April to condemn homosexuality, saying Islam “curses homosexuality because it causes disease and causes the lineage to decay” – remarks which President Erdogan warmly supported.

The Diyanet’s budget has increased massively under Erdogan. Its 2021 budget is nearly 23 times higher than it was in 2002, when his rule started. Its budget was 5.16 billion liras in 2018, doubling to 10.16 billion liras in 2019. The Diyanet has also overspent; 62 per cent more than its budget in 2018 and nearly 30 per cent in 2019.

The Diyanet’s main expenditure is staff salaries and construction, both at home and abroad. It generously builds mosques and Islamic centres abroad, especially in nearby Balkan countries.

It has built the new central mosques in Bucharest, Romania, and Tirana, Albania, gifting them to local religious communities. The Bosnian Islamic Community’s new headquarter is also being constructed by the Diyanet.

“The Diyanet has been implementing many projects and activities abroad and has obviously become the most important soft-power instrument of Ankara,” Ozturk explained.

“It now guides other state institutions and represents the Turkish state. It alone shows the transformation of state identity under the Erdogan governments,” he added.

As the budget for the Diyanet soars, Turkey’s economic crisis has deepened, however, and the Diyanet’s high spending is questioned by many.

Columnist Murat Muratoglu, at Sozcu daily, has criticized its activities and bumper budget at a time when the country and its people are struggling in an economic crisis.

Turkey’s already ailing economy has been hit hard by the pandemic. The economy is currently in recession and the currency, the lira, lost more than 40 per cent of its value in 2020 alone. Taxes rises to increase state revenue are making the lives of ordinary people harder, in addition to high inflation and unemployment rates.

 

Hamdi Firat Buyuk