Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs is known for its massive budget and huge network of mosques, muftis and imams, through which it controls religious affairs in the most remote villages. Enjoying generous privileges from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the institution — which is affiliated with the Prime Ministry and provides religious services according to Sunni Islam — has become a major instrument in shaping the “devout generations” imagined by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But not only that. In another function that has drawn little attention, the directorate has emerged as an efficient government tool in advancing Ankara’s foreign policy agenda.

For years, the Directorate of Religious Affairs has carried Ankara’s messages to Muslim believers across the country through the standardized sermons it supplies to the imams of Turkey’s 85,000 mosques, who preach almost exclusively the Sunni Hanafi faith and make up the majority of the directorate’s 122,000-strong personnel. In recent years, however, the directorate has evolved into a body that takes Ankara’s message even farther, beyond the country’s borders.

A glance at its website is enough to see how active the directorate has become internationally. The institution’s 2013 activity report, available on the website, describes a transboundary agenda of “shaping and spreading an objective perception of Islam around the world.” It says the directorate aims “to present an understanding of Islam, which is based on Islam’s scientific foundations, and lead the efforts to spread it.” It notes that 200,267 meetings, conferences, panels and symposiums were organized abroad as part of this objective.

The directorate’s wide range of overseas activities includes 80 visits paid by official delegations to Islamic countries or countries with Muslim communities, as well as joint initiatives in 79 countries, mostly Turkic republics in Central Asia and African nations, to provide mosques, schools and other educational services. A total of 3,791 students have been brought from the Balkans, the Turkic republics and Africa to study in Turkey’s imam-hatip religious high schools, Quranic courses, and post-graduate and doctoral programs.