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Humanitarian, hospitable and generous:

Turkish Public Diplomacy’s ‘story’ in times of

authoritarianism and military interventionism

Humanitária, hospitaleira e generosa:

a ‘história’ da diplomacia pública da Turquia em

tempos de autoritarismo e intervenções militares

DOI: 10.21530/ci.v15n2.2020.1050

Paula Orrico Sandrin

Victor Damasceno Toscano Costa

Abstract

This article aims to analyze Turkish Public Diplomacy (PD) since the Justice and Development

Party (AKP, in Turkish) came to power in 2002. In particular, it aims to make sense of the

plurality of public diplomacy discourses and practices which attempt to enact a particular

identity for Turkey and to tell a particular ‘story’ to foreign and domestic audiences. Based

on a post-structuralist theoretical framework, we present the many institutions responsible

for Public Diplomacy in Turkey and analyze the ‘stories’ told by them, arguing that PD is one

of the many practices engaged by the AKP government in its attempt to enact a particular

identity and in its pursuit of legitimacy and influence. The particular identity the AKP has

been trying — and keeps failing — to enact is that of a ‘benign’, benevolent, humanitarian,

hospitable and generous emerging power, a model of a Muslim democracy with a growing

economy, heir of a (positive) Ottoman legacy. The article also attempts to understand how

1 Professora Assistente de Relações Internacionais do IRI/PUC-Rio, com doutorado (2013) e mestrado (2007- com

mérito) em Relações Internacionais pela University of Westminster. Suas áreas de interesse incluem o papel

de afetos e emoções na política global; relações entre União Europeia e Turquia; política externa e diplomacia

pública da União Europeia e da Turquia. Link para Currículo Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/0964723089757076;

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0295-4620; email: paulasandrin@hotmail.com

2 Mestrando em Relações Internacionais pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). Possui

interesse de estudo nas áreas de identidades e formação de identidades — particularmente masculinidades,

branquitudes e identidades nacionais —; evolução do Sistema Internacional; migrações; fronteiras e

processos formadores de fronteiras; e conexões de religião e política. Link para o Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.

br/9843643367430648; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4581-8071; email: victor.toscano@live.com

Artigo submetido em 20/02/2020 e aprovado em 09/06/2020.

239Paula Orrico Sandrin; Victor Damasceno Toscano Costa

Rev. Carta Inter., Belo Horizonte, v. 15, n. 2, 2020, p. 238-263

AKP public diplomacy has been trying to modulate such a ‘story’ in a context marked by

Turkish military interventions abroad and growing authoritarianism at home.

Keywords: Turkey; Public Diplomacy; Post-Structuralism.

Resumo

O artigo tem como objetivo analisar a diplomacia pública da Turquia desde que o partido

Justiça e Desenvolvimento (AKP, em turco) chegou ao poder em 2002. Em particular,

visamos fazer sentido da pluralidade de discursos e práticas de diplomacia pública que

tentam construir uma identidade particular para a Turquia e contar uma ‘história’ sobre

o país para audiências domésticas e internacionais. Utilizando um arcabouço teórico pós-

estruturalista, apresentamos as muitas instituições responsáveis por diplomacia pública

na Turquia e analisamos as ‘histórias’ contadas por elas, argumentando que a diplomacia

pública é uma dentre as muitas práticas empregadas pelo AKP em seus esforços para

construir identidade e obter legitimidade e influencia. A identidade particular que o AKP

vem tentando — sem sucesso — construir para o país é de uma potência emergente benigna,

benevolente, humanitária, hospitaleira e generosa, um modelo de democracia muçulmana

com uma economia em crescimento, herdeira de um legado positivo do Império Otomano.

O artigo também tenta entender como a diplomacia pública do AKP vem tentando modular

tal ‘história’ em um contexto marcado por autoritarismo na esfera doméstica e intervenções

militares no exterior.

Palavras-chave: Turquia, Diplomacia Pública, Pós-Estruturalismo.

Introduction

This article aims to analyze Turkish Public Diplomacy (PD) since the Justice

and Development Party (AKP, in Turkish) came to power in 2002. In particular, it

aims to make sense of the plurality of public diplomatic discourses and practices

which attempt to enact a particular identity for Turkey and to tell a particular

‘story’ to foreign and domestic audiences. Based on a post-structuralist theoretical

framework, we argue that AKP’s PD slogan — “Turkey has an image and a story

to share” — is doubly misleading. First, by using definite articles — an and a —

3 O presente trabalho foi realizado com apoio da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

— Brasil (CAPES) — Código de Financiamento 001.

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it implies that its story is cohesive and consensual; there’s only one story to be

told. As we attempt to demonstrate, Turkey, through its multiple public diplomacy

institutions and disconnected voices, has many stories to share. Second, the

‘stories’ themselves constitute part of an effort to enact a particular identity for

Turkey, which is not prior to the actions that try to enact it.

The article will, first, provide a review of the literature on Public Diplomacy,

discussing how it is based on a set of assumptions which tend to point towards

a constructivist, if not outright essentialist, understanding of foreign policy. We,

argue that, instead of a reflection of an actor’s given identity, as stated by this

literature, public diplomacy is one of the practices an actor engages in its attempt

to enact its own, though precarious and unstable, identity. Turkey, as any other

entity, can never have a unitary and cohesive identity. Instead, its identity will

be fragmented, multiple and contradictory. After all, Turkey is composed of a

multiplicity of institutions, agencies, organizations and peoples

, and, as such,

will have multiple voices, all of which work to enact identities. Such complexities,

we believe, are better dealt with a poststructuralist analysis, which is the focus of

our second section. Third, we present the many institutions responsible for Public

Diplomacy in Turkey and analyze the ‘stories’ told by them, arguing that PD is

one of the many practices engaged by the AKP government in its attempt to enact

a particular identity and in its pursuit of legitimacy and influence. The particular

identity the AKP has been trying — and keeps failing– to enact is that of a ‘benign’,

benevolent, humanitarian, hospitable and generous emerging power, a model of a

Muslim democracy with a growing economy, heir of a (positive) Ottoman legacy.

The article will finally try to understand how AKP’s public diplomacy efforts have

been trying to modulate such a “story” in a context marked by Turkish military

interventions abroad and growing authoritarianism at home.

4 In an article entitled “Who are the Turks?” Mustafa Akyol (2011) argued that Turkey is composed of “several

nations under the Star and Crescent” (p. 17): the conservatives (muhafazakarlar), whose main source of values

is Sunni Islam and are currently represented by the Justice and Development Party (AKP); the secularists (laikler)

or Kemalists, represented by the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Military, and other state institutions;

the Kurds, who constitute about 15% of the population; and the religious minorities, including Muslims of the

Alevi sect and non-Muslims such as Armenians, Greeks and Jews. These categories overlap in many instances:

some who identify as Kemalists can side with some self-identified conservatives when it comes to the Kurdish

issue; conservatives and Kemalists serve in the military; some Kurds might vote for the AKP, whereas some are

staunch secularists, like Kemalists.

241Paula Orrico Sandrin; Victor Damasceno Toscano Costa

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What is public diplomacy? A literature review

The concepts of public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy and soft power usually

overlap. The three terms evoke the ideas of a power of attraction (actually possessed

or desired) by a given nation-state, and the perceptions and preferences of a foreign

public. It is impossible to determine the exact boundaries of each concept, as each

one is also subjected to contestation and all of them are also related in different

ways to a country’s foreign policy. After reviewing the literature that deals with

the subject of what public diplomacy is or should be, it becomes clear that the

definition of the concept varies slightly: PD can be seen as “a method by which

an international actor can conduct foreign policy by engaging a foreign public”

(Cull 2013, vii); “an instrument used [...] to understand cultures, attitudes, and

behavior ; build and manage relations; and influence thoughts and mobilize actions

to advance their interests and values” (Gregory quoted in Melissen 2011, 2); “how a

nation’s government and society engage with external audiences, typically with the

aim of improving these foreign publics’ perception of that nation” (Cross 2013, 4);

a way to project an actor’s “self-image, or the image that a given actor intends to

project to a third party” (Duke 2013a, 114; Duke 2013b, 2); or “a country’s effort

to share a coherent and convincing account of its own story with the rest of the

world” (Kalin 2011, 8). According to Çevik (2016), in Turkey, Public Diplomacy

is “narration and publicity, geared towards a duality of audiences, both domestic

and international” (p. 56).

Regardless of conceptual variations, it is astounding how widespread are

constructivist understandings about identity in PD literature. It is widely assumed

that the relationship between identity and PD is one in which identity precedes

(or should precede) the practices of public diplomacy. Cross (2013), for example,

argues that PD “narratives gain legitimacy when they derive from the real identity

of the people involved” (p. 5; emphasis added), that “a legitimate and credible

PD strategy is only possible if it directly reflects the identity of the people it

represents” (p. 6; emphasis added), and also that “PD must [...] reflect real identity

otherwise it will not be persuasive” (p. 9; emphasis added). Çevik (2016) says

that “countries turn to a rather traditional public diplomacy that rests on image

projection […] expecting to share a more desirable image” (p. 57; emphasis added).

Huijgh and Warlick (2016) speak of a Turkish “democratic identity” (p. 10) and

say that PD is comprised of “master narratives”, which are “stories that reflect

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a community’s identity and help community members to understand who they

are and what they stand for, and make sense of the developments around them”

(p. 15; emphasis added). Ibrahim Kalin, special adviser to the President of Turkey

and the presidential spokesperson, says that PD “reflects the new identity which

the country wants to embrace” (2011, 12) and that “Turkish public diplomacy

must take into consideration […] particular realities born out of its own story”

(p. 16). Kalin also tries to explain the concept of “identity” directly: “what really

matters is not image but identity. The determinant of a community’s true qualities

is not its appearance” (Kalin 2011, 17, emphasis added).

It can thus be noted that the literature sees PD as a reflection or projection of

a given, pre-existent, and “real” identity, image or narrative. Public diplomacy, in

such perspectives, is seen as reflecting how a society “really” is. We, in contrast,

argue that public diplomacy is one of the practices through which the identity of

an international actor is enacted. This dimension of identity enacting is rarely, if

ever, explored in PD literature — particularly Turkey’s — which tends to essentialize

identity as preceding political action, not as relating to it in a simultaneous and

mutually constitutive way. In short, public diplomacy’s relation to identity can be

summed up by a neat sentence used by Willard (2012): “The question of Turkey’s

identity is core to Turkish public diplomacy”. The biggest point of contention

between us and the reviewed authors is how public diplomacy and identity actually

relate to each other.

Public diplomacy and identity — a poststructuralist take

Poststructuralism’s main insight on states and their identities is that “states

are never finished as entities” (Campbell 1992, 11), with “ahistorical, frozen and

pre-given boundaries” (Ibid., 69). Instead, they are “unavoidably paradoxical

entities which do not possess pre-discursive, stable identities” (Ibid., 11), being

“devoid of ontological being apart from the many and varied practices which

constitute their reality” (Ibid., 105).

Therefore,

all states are marked by an inherent tension between the various domains

that need to be aligned for an ‘imagined political community’ to come into

being — such as territoriality and the many axes of identity — and the

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demand that such an alignment is a response to (rather than constitutive

of) a prior and stable identity (Ibid., 11).

This tension demands of states that they rely on “the regulated and stylized

repetition of practices like Foreign Policy” — such as the practices that fall under

the Public Diplomacy umbrella — “to contain contingency and secure the self”

(Ibid., 251), a struggle that is poised to fail, since the “performative nature of

identity can never be fully revealed” which means that the state is rendered “in

permanent need of reproduction […] always in a process of becoming” (Ibid., 11).

In other words, “contemporary states are multiple acephalous federations

which exist as states only by virtue of their ability to constitute themselves as

imagined communities” (Ibid., 195), borrowing from Benedict Anderson’s famous

conceptualization of nations (Anderson 2006).

Considering that states are never finished as entities, being always in a

process of becoming, Foreign Policy practices, including those of PD, cannot

be understood as practices that act as a bridge between pre-existing states,

since such an understanding implies that the state is previous to said practices

(Campbell 1992, 44), and that states’ identities are secured before their interactions

(Ibid., 56). Departing from a poststructuralist understanding, Foreign Policy,

instead of being the outward orientation of practices of a pre-existing state

with a stable identity, is in fact the very act by which the states give rise to

their boundaries (Ibid., 56), in a process that enacts both the state and the

international system, part and parcel of the same process (Ibid., 68). This process

is inherently tensioned by the various domains that constitute the reality of the

state and this complexity has to be disciplined by Foreign Policy practices. In

other words, to secure legitimacy and avoid contestations, the alternatives to the

intended identity must be suppressed so that such identity appears as natural,

integral, cohesive and homogenous, conditions that are inexorably unachievable.

It is not without reason that Richard Ashley and R.B.J. Walker argue that any

identity is

recognized as one among many arbitrary interpretations; it is seen as a

knowledgeable practice of power, itself arbitrarily constructed, that is put

to work to tame ambiguities, control meaning, and impose limitations on

what people can do and say (1990, 262).

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Identities are enacted

by linguistic resources and by “repertoires of action”

(Aradau et al 2015, 4), or practices: “embodied, materially mediated arrays of

human activity centrally organized around shared practical understanding”

(Schatzki in Aradau et al. 2015a, 3). Meanings do not emerge from an inherent

relationship between an object and the word used to make reference to it, or

between the signified and signifier, “but from a contingent relationship between

the signifiers” (Epstein 2008, 7). Signifiers form linguistic chains, which refer to

other signifying chains (Stavrakakis 1999, 57). The infinite possible combinations

of signifiers mean that, in principle, an infinite number of significations can be

produced. However, political and societal actors attempt to fix the meaning of

signifying chains through nodal points: words, terms or phrases that attempt to

fasten groups of words together into meaningful narratives (Laclau and Mouffe

2001, 112). The potential never-ending flow of signification can, thus, be arrested

and partial fixity and stability of meanings can be achieved through nodal points.

The linguistic and the material are mutually constituted: materiality acquires

meaning through language; language has material effects, since “what is said about

[objects] is intimately tied to what is done with them” (Epstein 2008, 5); and

material practices are also “loci where meanings are produced” (Epstein 2008, 5).

Through linguistic and non-linguistic practices “meanings are produced, identities

constituted, social relations established, and political and ethical outcomes made

more or less possible” (Campbell 2013, 234, 235). In other words, these practices,

both linguistic and non-linguistic, define and constitute subjects, objects and the

relations between them; and normalize certain ways of being and certain courses

of action (Epstein 2008; Milliken 1999).

In the next section, we will provide an overview of the many institutions

engaged in public diplomatic activities in Turkey, in order to identify the material

5 In this article we prefer to say that identities are “enacted”, instead of “constructed” or “performed”, following

the suggestion of authors working on Actor-Network Theory. The term has the double connotation of both

putting something into action, as in “enacting a law”, and of performing something, as in a play or story. This

suggestion is offered as an alternative to both “construction” and “performance”, two of the most widely used

terms for implying that the entity being constructed or performed is contingent and not natural (Magalhães

2018). One of the criticisms to which “construction” is subjected is that, while the term tries to convey such

contingency, its use risks implying that the “construction” is supervised by an “architect”, whose existence is

previous to the construction actively acting for its concretization (Ibid., 114). “Construction” also implies that

there is a process that by its end the entity being constructed “becomes”. If states and other entities are always

in a process of “becoming” (Campbell 1992, 56), identities can never be finished. If such process actually had

an end, if constructions actually reached a conclusion, such that no more enacting was necessary, it would

mean the existence of a pre-discursive realm. However, the lack of pre-discursive foundations is precisely the

reason why states need to — and do — constantly and infinitely enact their identities (Ibid., 11).

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apparatus involved in telling Turkey’s ‘story’. In the following sections, we will

analyze the many stories that are being told, including their contradictions,

transformations and continuities.

Turkey’s Public Diplomacy institutional structure

The AKP government began to build the country’s public diplomacy institutional

structure in 2009/2010, with the creation of new institutions such as the Yunus Emre

Institute (YEI), the Office of Public Diplomacy (KDK, in Turkish) and Presidency

for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB, in Turkish), and the repurposing

of older institutions such as the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency

(TIKA), a development agency, which was folded into the public diplomacy

structure and expanded its activities from the Balkans, Caucasia and Central Asia

to the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America and now works in more than

150 countries. TIKA began to serve as a public diplomacy institution by pinning

Turkey as a donor country (Huijgh and Warlick 2016, 25).

As we shall see in more detail below, the impetus for the institutional build-up

was to send a more ‘coherent’ message about the AKP’s different understanding

of the role Turkey should play in its surrounding regions, particularly those that

used to be part of the Ottoman Empire, such as the Balkans and the Middle East.

The message stressed two main points: that this government was different from

previous administrations, which favored either a hands-off approach or securitized

and militarized policies towards these regions; and that Turkey, due to a positive

Ottoman legacy, and its successful combination of Islam and democracy, should

play the role of a benevolent regional leader.

The Office of Public Diplomacy (KDK)’s primary task, as stated in the

publication of decree 27478 of January 30th 2010, was to provide “a more efficient

coordination, cooperation, and decision-making mechanism” as “necessary among

public policy institutions”. It was intended to coordinate the activities of several

institutions directly or indirectly dealing with public/cultural diplomacy, such as

the aforementioned YEI, YTB and TIKA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and

the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, although it also established its own programs

(Kalin 2011, 8; Huijgh & Warlick 2016). Since the transition to a presidential

system in 2018, KDK has been replaced by the Directorate of Communications of

the Turkish Presidency.

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The Yunus Emre Institute was modelled after cultural diplomacy institutions

of Western countries, such as Alliance Française, the British Council and Goethe

Institute, and, accordingly, aims to promote Turkish culture, language, art and

history abroad (YEI n/d). More than 58 cultural centers have been established

around the world, and among their many activities are included film, food and art

festivals; poem, song, painting and drama competitions; scientific and academic

conferences and workshops; and different courses (from Turkish hand crafts

to folk dance) (Eski and Erol 2018, 32). The Presidency for Turks Abroad and

Related Communities, as the name implies, has as its main target Turkish diaspora

communities, but also coordinates the Turkey Scholarship Program, which provides

higher education scholarships to international students.

It is interesting to note that many intercultural dialogue activities preceded

the creation of the Yunus Emre Institute and were already carried out by the

Gülenist Hizmet movement, a faith-based international network of organizations

and individuals named after the Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen. The movement

operates in more than 180 countries, having established schools and cultural

centers, including in Brazil (“Centro Cultural Brasil-Turquia”, launched in 2011).

The movement and the AKP government worked in close cooperation inside and

outside Turkey until their relationship began to sour in 2013. The government

accused the movement of plotting the coup attempt of July 15

2016, labelled it

“Fethullah Terrorist Organization” and closed many of its institutions involved

in public and cultural diplomacy, such as Kimse Yok Mu, one of Turkey’s largest

charitable organizations, which operated predominantly within Muslim countries

(Çevik, Sevin and Baybars-Hawks 2018).

In addition to the institutions mentioned above, Kalin (2011) adds others, such

as “Kizilay (The Turkish Red Crescent), […] TRT (The Turkish National TV)”,

“aid organizations, foundations, civilian platforms, and other civil society actors”

that “have become indispensable to public diplomacy efforts” and are all active

in it “through political, diplomatic, economic and cultural activities” (p. 21).

In conjunction, these institutions make up Turkey’s multiple and fragmented

public diplomacy network and work to enact Turkey’s identity, as envisioned by

the government and other constituents. Such a vast array of agents, as we shall

see, leads to dispersion and contradiction in discourses, all of which undermine

the literature’s claim to public diplomacy as a cohesive practice that reflects a

pre-given stable identity. On the other hand, we can discern attempts by Turkish

political actors to sediment and fix particular configurations of meaning about

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Turkey, and its relations with the West and neighboring regions, through privileged

discursive tropes.

Analyzing primary and secondary sources on Turkish PD, we have discerned

the prominence of two themes: a (positive) Ottoman legacy and Turkey as a ‘benign’

emerging power. As we shall see, these two discursive tropes are interrelated:

the latter is a consequence of the former. In the following, we argue that AKP

PD efforts constitute attempts to demarcate and stabilize a particular conception

of Turkish identity, one which is portrayed as different and better than the one

articulated by Kemalist elites. This designation of a particular “Turkey’s story

and image” has both domestic and international publics as intended audiences.

These attempts to seal in, contain and stabilize particular meanings about Turkey’s

image and story are doomed to fail, since, as we have seen, it is impossible to

contain systems of signification — “they always retain paradoxes, open ends,

and impossibilities” (Wæver 2009, 173). Multiple meanings, both dissonant and

consonant, insist on flowing, in spite of the partial fixity attempted through the

frequent repetition of two themes.

In order to understand PD efforts under the AKP government, we must

understand the context within which they acquire meaning. AKP PD narratives

acquire meaning in a context populated by several other narratives (about Turkey’s

image and Turkey’s story) which attempt to contain and stabilize particular

configurations of meaning about Turkey and its relations with other countries.

Turkey’s story(ies) and Turkey’s image(s) have been told and described many times

and in many ways. Sometimes, some of those stories and images are significantly

different from each other; sometimes, they bear striking similarities. As we explore

these two prominent themes, we will emphasize how Turkey’s relations with the

West/Europe and with the Muslim Middle East have been framed and narrated in

AKP PD discourses, in order to identify ruptures and continuities with regardto

previous narratives.

Telling Turkey’s ‘story’ through public diplomacy: what is being

told? A positive Ottoman legacy

Former members of the Ottoman Empire, in particular Arabs, were frequently

depicted by Kemalist leaders, military officers, school textbooks and everyday

chatter as traitors who stabbed Turkey in the back during World War I. As a

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consequence, Turkey was presented as a lone country, situated in an unfortunate

geographical location, encircled by unfriendly countries devising schemes to

weaken or even disintegrate Turkey with the help of enemies within (Altinay 2004;

Bilgin 2007). In contrast, AKP narratives frequently portray the Ottoman past as

the basis for the establishment of closer relations with former members of the

Empire. According to President Erdogan: “We have grown up with the motto that

Turkey is surrounded by three seas and neighboring enemy countries […] ‘Arabs

stabbed us in the back during the First World War’ was the common saying until

very recently. You know what? I even feel ashamed when I recall it, but the word

‘Arab’ was the common way of calling a stray dog on the street […] Our policy

is not to create enemies but to establish stable ties with all countries. Turkey’s

relations with Middle Eastern countries are only natural as is the case with Balkan

or Caucasus countries” (quoted in Demirtas 2010).

The idea that a shared Ottoman past naturally creates bonds between

its former members and that Ottoman heritage provides a basis for Turkey’s

leadership in the region had one of its clearest formulations in the book Strategic

Depth, authored by former Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet

Davutoglu. According to this idea, the end of the Cold War “defrosted” some of

the deep connections between Turkey and its neighborhood. As a result, Turkey

has the possibility to become once again a central country (Davutoglu 2010),

providing security and stability to areas where it has historical responsibilities,

namely the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Gulf and the

Caspian, Black and Mediterranean Seas (Davutoglu 2008, 79). The aim to achieve

peace between Turkey and its neighbors was encapsulated in the “zero-problem

policy” formulated by Davutoglu. According to the former Prime Minister, the

zero-problem policy was “the fundamental principle we have applied in foreign

policy […], deepening friendships, intensifying and growing fraternity […] This is

why we said […] we will open doors of friendship and fraternity […] let siblings

meet, mingle with each other; and let the fraternity which comes from the depths

of history be transferred to the future generations” (quoted in Today’s Zaman

2011, 04). By enhancing socio-cultural and trade relations between Turkey and

its neighbors, the “security-based and hard-power-based politics of the former

governments” were left behind (Eksi and Erol 2018, 40).

In PD efforts, the idea that Ottoman heritage and legacy allows Turkey to be

a regional leader is frequently expressed. According to Ibrahim Kalin, the purpose

of Turkish public diplomacy is to tell the new Turkish ‘story’, which “reflects the

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new identity which the country wants to embrace” (2011, 12, emphasis added).

According to Kalin (2011), the content of the new Turkish ‘story’ told by PD

activities springs from a new political, social and geographic imagination, which

enables Turkey to overcome “its old fears” (p. 5) and “Eurocentric notions of

history and society” (p. 6); and to “reconnect with its history and geography”

(p. 5). A revaluation of the Ottoman past and signifiers associated with it and,

consequently, a more positive reading of Turkish history and geography, have

been regular features of AKP leaders’ statements. In fact, Kalin (2011) recognizes

Davutoglu’s Strategic Depth vanguard position when it comes to the “effort to see

the world in a non-Eurocentric perspective” (Kalin 2011, 7).

The narrative establishes that “Turkey’s descent from the Ottoman experience

results in genuine familiarity with a large geographic area extending from the

Balkans to the Middle East (Kalin, 2011, 20). Now, after overcoming “past mistakes”

and “misguided government policies” of the past (Kalin 2011, 12) — presumably

during Kemalist governments — “the emotional and political distance between

Turkey and the Arab world is diminishing, and those relations are normalizing

after a long hiatus” (Kalin 2011, 20). Diverse groups, such as “Turks, Kurds,

Bosnians, Albanians, Circassians, Abkhazians, Arabs, Azeris, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs,

Uzbeks, Turkmens […], Armenian, Greek, Jewish and Assyrian communities” are

brought together and reconciled due to “the Ottoman experience they have shared

and built together”. Turkey, as “the pivotal point of this heritage” can extend its

soft power “from the Balkans and the Middle East to inner parts of Central Asia”

(Kalin 2011, 10). References to the positive Ottoman legacy are widespread. In

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website, a section entitled “Brief History of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey” (Turkey 2011a) it is written that

“The Foreign Service of the Republic of Turkey is founded on the well-established

traditions and legacy of Ottoman diplomacy with a long history”. It claims that

this “commanding diplomatic tradition […] was one of the leading factors which

enabled the Ottoman Empire to reign over a vast geography for several centuries”.

If AKP narratives about the Ottoman legacy serve as an attempt to clearly

distinguish the party and its followers from Kemalist elites, when it comes to

Europe/EU, on the other hand, AKP narratives reveal that differences between the

two groups, so frequently represented as the antithesis of each other, are not so

clear cut. In fact, since the early Republican years, a deep ambiguity in Turkish

elites’ discourses about Europe and the West, be they left-wing, right-wing or

Islamist, can be discerned (Bilgiç 2016; Bilgin 2009, 2017; Bilgin and Bilgiç 2012;

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Rev. Carta Inter., Belo Horizonte, v. 15, n. 2, 2020, p. 238-263

Zarakol 2010, 2011; and Gülsah Çapan and Zarakol 2017). Desire, admiration,

suspicion, anxiety, anger, frustration and resentment all coexist in Turkish political

leaders’ views of Europe/EU.

On one hand, suspicions and anger about continuous European/Western

hypocrisy, double standards, aggression and intrusiveness in Turkish domestic

affairs, manifested in the Ottoman Empire system of capitulations, the Treaty

of Sevres, EU conditionality, criticism of Turkey’s democratic and human rights

standards, and other instances, are frequently voiced by AKP leaders today as

they were by Kemalist leaders in the past.

On the other hand, the West/Europe have functioned as nodal points in Turkish

discourses for more than a century, binding together signifiers such as civilization,

modernization, secularism, industrialization, rationality and science. Turkey’s

socialization in a hierarchical international order meant that signifiers associated

with the Ottoman Empire were devalued whereas signifiers associated with West/

Europe were valued. As a result, Turkish political leaders have been attempting

to identify with signifiers associated with the West/Europe ever since. Mustafa

Kemal Ataturk’s reforms, conducted in the early Republican period, for example,

were attempts to replace Ottoman-Islamic ways of thinking with ‘modern’ modes

of thought and epistemologies based on rationality and science. More recently,

the signifiers democracy, rule of law, human rights, (economic) development and

prosperity have been bound by the nodal point “European Union”. Example of

this is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website explaining that Turkey “cherish[es]

and defend[s] the same values and norms the EU is built on, such as democracy

and respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law” and that

Turkey’s “ongoing reforms, especially in the areas of democracy, human rights and

rule of law, constitute a significant aspect of our efforts towards EU accession and

show [Turkey’s] willingness to contribute to the global role of the EU” (Turkey

2011b). Although AKP leaders have recast the Ottoman Empire in a new light,

and in several instances appear resistant to the EU, they also have inherited the

desire for recognition and validation from Europe/EU; the resentment towards it;

and the attachment to certain signifiers associated with it.

In spite of PD claims about a new non-Eurocentric imagination, the persistent

attachment to certain signifiers associated with the West/Europe/EU becomes

visible when the same “Brief History of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” (Turkey

2011a), which spoke about a commanding Ottoman diplomatic tradition, mentions,

251Paula Orrico Sandrin; Victor Damasceno Toscano Costa

Rev. Carta Inter., Belo Horizonte, v. 15, n. 2, 2020, p. 238-263

without a hint of protest or grief, that “Ambassadors of the Ottoman Empire

appointed to European capitals […] served as pioneers of modernization by

accelerating the process of westernization and reform within the Empire”. The

Ministry of Foreign Affair’s own Directorate for EU Affairs also states that “Turkey

began ‘westernising’ its economic, political and social structures in the 19

century […] it chose Western Europe as the model for its new secular structure”,

continuing on to say that “Turkey has ever since closely aligned itself with the

West […]” (Turkey 2017).

Turkey as a benevolent emerging power

Another prevalent theme in PD discourses is the image of Turkey, under the

AKP government, as a generous, humanitarian, hospitable, benevolent and/or

benign emerging power in the world stage, usually citing the hosting of millions

of Syrian refugees in its own territory or its provision of humanitarian aid and

development cooperation activities abroad (Tolay 2016, 135; Çevik 2016, 55;

Huijgh and Warlick 2016, 26, Kalin 2011). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs website,

in an entry entitled “Turkey’s Enterprising and Humanitarian Foreign Policy”

(Turkey 2019), stresses that “Turkey hosts the largest number of externally displaced

people in the world […] accommodating around 4.9 million externally displaced

people, 3.7 million of whom are Syrians, who have had to flee destruction in their

home country. Turkey has spent around 40 billion USD to deliver aid and services

to the Syrians”. This claim is followed by the assertion that “With 8.6 billion USD

of humanitarian assistance in 2018, Turkey is the largest humanitarian donor in

the world, and the most generous country on the basis of per capita humanitarian

spending” (Turkey 2019).

In fact, the AKP government places its open-door policy for refugees at the

center of its public diplomacy efforts (Özdora Aksak 2019, 2). Almost half of the

news stories run between 2011 and 2018 by Anadolu Agency, the country’s official

news outlet, under the control of the Directorate of Communications, about Syrian

refugees in Turkey, presented Turkey as a good host (Özdora Aksak 2019, 8).

Besides mentioning the funds, services, projects and programs provided to

refugees, many of the news articles cited international actors’ praises for Turkish

hospitality, including praises by the President of the European Parliament, the

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European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship and the United

Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This generosity and hospitality are also

framed as enduring legacies of the Ottoman Empire, which had “the tradition of

being a safe haven for battered and persecuted people” (Eski 2019). Furthermore,

until recently, the AKP government had been one of the most outspoken critics

of China’s policies towards the Uighur minority, who is ethnically Turkic and

religiously Muslim, in Xinjiang province. In 2009, then Prime Minister Recep

Tayyip Erdoğan used the term “near-genocide” to describe the Chinese crackdown

in the region

. These vocal criticisms could be interpreted as part of a strategy to

present AKP’s Turkey as a leader of oppressed Turkic peoples

and Muslims around

the world.

This ‘new’ benevolent Turkey, which confidently embraces Ottoman heritage,

is positively compared with Turkish image in the 1990s, when the country was

described as a “post-Cold War warrior” (Kirisci 2006, 8), a “coercive regional

power” (Onis 2003, 84) and a “regional bully” (Kramer, 2000, 212) for constantly

threatening the use of force against its neighbors. It is also contrasted with

the international community, particularly Western powers, lack of support for

refugees. The EU, in particular, was frequently criticized for delaying the transfer

of funds promised in the context of the 2016 Turkey-EU migrant deal (Özdora

Aksak 2019, 11). “Such discursive strategies in news stories reposition Turkey

as an ally of those in need and a good neighbor, while positioning the West as

an uncaring antagonist that has failed to fulfill its promises” (Özdora Aksak

2019, 17).

In addition to its altruistic actions towards foreigners abroad and at home,

Turkey’s democracy and economic prosperity have been described in PD texts as

sources of the country’s influence. According to Kalin (2011, 9), two of the main

6 In recent years, due to China’s increasing economic influence in Turkey, particularly through infrastructure

investment projects, and the deterioration of Turkey-United States ties, the AKP’s policy towards China’s

crackdown of Uighurs shifted from strong condemnation to relative silence. In October 2019, the Turkish

government refused to join other countries in joint a statement to call on China to end violations against Uighur

Muslims (Kashgarian 2020).

7 The emergence of new Turkic Republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus with the dissolution of the Soviet

Union had already provided, pre-AKP years, an opportunity for Turkey to devote its energies to regions sharing

linguistic and cultural ties with the country. The “discovery” of these regions in the 1990s seemed to abate to

a certain degree the feeling of isolation characteristic of Kemalist government’s discourses. Former President

Süleyman Demirel (1993-2000) went so far as to say that Turkey should assume the leadership of a giant “Turkic

world stretching from the Adriatic Sea to China” (quoted on Bozdaglioglu 2003, 96).

253Paula Orrico Sandrin; Victor Damasceno Toscano Costa

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pillars of Turkey’s soft power are its democratic experience and its successful

economic development, which render the country a model to Arab countries. In

this narrative, the image of Turkey is of “an island of stability [which] has become a

sanctuary for people escaping from terrorism and violence in the region” (Davutoglu

in Tolay 2016, 142). Huijgh and Warlick (2016) also note that a prominent narrative

of Turkish PD is “its economic prosperity and commitment to democracy” (p. 14),

although the authors acknowledge that there is an “ever-growing discord between

the government’s democratic rhetoric and some autocratic tendencies” (p. 29),

manifested in “the violation of democratic rights, media censorship, police

brutality (p. 30). This narrative, despite its contradictions, is neatly summed up in

Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affair’s website: it states that Turkey’s “policies adapt

to constant changes and strive to shape the dynamics around us towards peace,

prosperity and stability” (Turkey 2019, emphasis added) — which is eerily close

to the EU’s own trope of itself as a “zone of peace, prosperity and democracy”

(European Union Global Strategy 2016; European Commission 2010; European

Security Strategy 2003).

The EU has been described, or describes itself, as “a positive global force”

(European Commission 2017); a ‘civilian power’ (Duchêne 1973), ‘normative

power’ (Manners 2002; Manners and Whitman 2013), ‘ethical power’ (Aggestam

2008), ‘a model’ (European Commission 2007a and 2007b). It is in this context that

we can understand the constant reference to a generous, benevolent, democratic,

prosperous and stable Turkey which serves (or served) as a model to neighboring

countries. Such terms attempted to place Turkey alongside the EU in the hall of

foreign policy and domestic virtuosity. Turkey’s parameters continue to be the

West/Europe/EU, even though the rift between the two continue to grow in other

spheres.

The fact that Western frames of reference lap at the shore of the new

(presumably non-Eurocentric) Turkish ‘story’ is a reminder that material and

symbolic hierarchies have deep psychic effects and, thus, are not easily dismantled.

It is also a reminder that attempts to seal in particular configurations of meanings

are doomed to fail, since meanings are unstable and impossible to contain. Finally,

it reminds us that borders (such as those between conservative and Kemalists)

must be kept through many practices, linguistic and non-linguistic, including PD,

lest they expose their absence of ontological status and porosity.

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Modulating Turkey’s ‘story’ in times of domestic authoritarianism

and foreign military interventions

The ‘story’ of AKP’s Turkey as a model of a Muslim democracy with a

thriving economy, a regional leader which combines entrepreneurship with

humanitarianism, generosity and hospitality, had to be modulated as domestic

and foreign policies began to take on more authoritarian and militaristic tones .

Domestically, the government increasingly adopted a more authoritarian

behavior, supporting a purge of (secular) opposition forces via the Ergenekon

and Sledgehammer court cases and later, after the failed coup attempt of July

15th 2016, of members of the Hizmet movement and anyone accused of having

ties with them. Hundreds of thousands of people were investigated, dismissed or

arrested, including civil servants, judges, prosecutors, military officials, academics,

teachers and journalists (Turkey Purge 2020).

Internationally, Turkey carried out three military operations in Northern

Syria (Euphrates Shield in 2016/2017; Olive Brach in 2018 and Peace Spring in

2019) against Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey

considers a terrorist organization due to its links to Kurdistan Workers’ Party

(PKK). Operation Peace Spring, carried out after the withdrawal of American troops

from northeastern Syria in October 2019, received widespread condemnation.

As a result of the operation, hundreds of thousand people were displaced

and Turkey was accused of committing war crimes and several human rights

violations (Amnesty International 2019). European countries imposed an arms

embargo and the United States established sanctions against senior government

officials.

Given these domestic and international developments, the story of Turkey as

a model of how to reconcile Islam and democracy, and of a benevolent regional

leader who deploys a zero-problem policy towards its neighbors, became harder

to sustain. After a ‘golden period’, Turkey’s soft power and global image were

severely affected (Eski and Erol 2018; Uysal and Schroeder 2019).

In this final section, we aim to analyze the stories that are being told in this

changing context by Turkish PD apparatus. Given that material practices (such

as purges of dissenters and military interventions) also produce meanings — in

these cases, possible meanings produced could be that Turkey is neither a model

of democracy nor a humanitarian and benevolent neighbor —, how has Turkish

public diplomacy been trying to seal in, contain and stabilize particular meanings

about Turkey’s story?

255Paula Orrico Sandrin; Victor Damasceno Toscano Costa

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We have identified the deployment of four discursive strategies: 1) a renewed

emphasis on Turkish cultural products and on its humanitarian, hospitable and

generous actions towards Syrian refugees; 2) a growing cult of personality around

President Erdogan; 3) an effort to tell Turkey’s ‘story’ right, in order to avoid

misinterpretation and negative ‘propaganda’; and 4) the mobilization of ‘old’

discursive tropes of Turkey as a lone country, located in a unfortunate region,

subjected to foreign powers’ scheming. The stories being told combine narratives

associated with AKP’s ‘new’ Turkey with narratives associated with Kemalists’

‘old’ Turkey, in an attempt to produce particular meanings, enact a particular

identity and make particular courses of action seem natural and ‘normal’.

Turkish public diplomacy shifted the emphasis of its message: from the

country’s political and economic success (as a country that managed to successfully

combine Islam, democracy and capitalism) to its cultural products, in particular

TV dramas broadcasted throughout the world. Investments in cultural diplomacy

attempt to counter the negative repercussions of unpopular actions (Donelli 2019,

128 and 129). In addition, the humanitarian dimension of Turkey’s open-door

policy to Syrian refugees continued to have prominence. According to Director of

Communications Fahrettin Altun, “As the country that hosts the world’s largest

number of refugees, we put this issue on the agenda of all internationally respected

organizations. We are informing the world public opinion in order for Turkey

to receive the respect it deserves in humanitarian aid policy” (Altun 2020). The

frequent depiction of Turkey as a good host to Syrian refugees in government

leaders’ discourses and media outlets, and the characterization of Turkish foreign

policy as ‘humanitarian’, represent a continuity of the discursive trope of Turkey

as a benign and benevolent regional leader. Missing from these discourses are

references to Turkey being a model. “Turkey’s […] policy of becoming a model

country for the Middle East with its Muslim democracy identity, which was

interrupted by the Arab Spring, has transformed into this new foreign policy and

public diplomacy over the Syrian refugees” (Eski 2019).

The three other discursive strategies — a cult of President Erdogan, ‘telling

Turkey’s story right’, and the mobilization of narratives associated with former

Kemalist governments — are deeply entwined. An analysis of more than 2500

Twitter posts by Turkish government’s most influential PD accounts have shown

that President Erdogan is presented as a charismatic, strong and heroic political

leader, possessor of superior qualities

: a savior and a champion of the Muslim

8 In an interview, Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun claimed that “our President’s supplement and food

only consist of his dedication and faith” (Altun 2020).

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world, a fatherly figure who stands up for and protects Muslims who are

persecuted around the world, be they Palestinians or Rohingya people (Uysal and

Schroeder 2019, 6).

The need to accurately frame and tell Turkey’s ‘story’ to the world, in

order to counter “unfair allegations” and “black propaganda” targeting Turkey,

constitutes one of the reasons for the creation of the Directorate of Communications

(Altun 2020). According to Director of this institution, Fahrettin Altun, the unity

of state institutions’ discourses is deemed important because “if different actors

in the State put forward different discourses on an issue, it delivers a negative

message to foreign countries. This does not only portray an image of chaos but

makes the state vulnerable to foreign interventions” (Altun 2020) These foreign

interventions, black propaganda and unfair allegations are made by “almost all

of the great powers”, “who are disturbed by Turkey’s growth rate” (Altun 2020).

In a sentence that weaves together the threads of ‘cult of personality’ and

‘telling Turkey’s story right’, Director Altun claims that “Our President has been

thinking for a long time that foreign actors have been unfair towards Turkey […]

Our President is striving to increase Turkey’s regional power and make Turkey

stronger while also exerting efforts to avoid threats emanating from the region.

Every step he takes for our country’s good causes a chain of black propaganda”

(Altun 2020).

The mentions of foreign powers being unfair towards Turkey, and of threats

emanating from the region, reverberates previous discourses about Turkey’s

unfortunate predicament in the world stage. As we have seen, Turkey was

frequently presented as a lone country, situated in an unfortunate geographical

location, encircled by unfriendly countries devising schemes to weaken or even

disintegrate Turkey. The current endeavor to “accurately” frame and tell Turkey’s

story entails the unearthing of old ‘Kemalist’ tropes of Turkey being the victim of

foreign powers’ meddling and encircled by unfriendly countries. Director Altun

succinctly revives this narrative by saying that “This is an element of the siege and

the war of attrition against Turkey. We have to struggle constantly and strongly”

(Altun 2020).

How can we account for the presence of a narrative mostly associated with

Kemalist groups, from whom AKP leaders wanted to distance themselves, among

PD discourses entailed with the task of telling a new Turkey’s story? First of all,

as we have seen, the suspicions of foreign powers meddling in Turkey’s internal

affairs is shared among AKP and Kemalist elites, demonstrating the frontiers

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between them are porous in some respects. Furthermore, by bringing to the fore a

narrative of regional threats and instabilities so ingrained in people’s imaginaries,

this discourse resonates among many sectors of the population, thereby helping

legitimate foreign policy actions as necessary and unavoidable. In fact, in spite of

widespread international condemnation, Operation Peace Spring was supported by

all political parties in parliament, except for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic

Party (HDP), and by 79% of Turkish population (Duvar 2019).

The issues which, according to the government, are subjected to black

propaganda and unfair allegations, and hence have to be ‘accurately’ told by

Turkish public diplomacy institutions, concern mainly the military interventions in

Syria and the post-attempted coup of July 15 crackdown. The post-coup measures,

usually referred to by international press as “purges” or “crackdown”, are referred

to by PD discourses as July 15 ‘resistance’: “We are coordinating the works in

our country and abroad to ensure that our July 15 resistance remains where it

deserves in our collective memory” (Altun 2020). The military interventions in

Syria are framed as a logical and existential necessity to protect Turkey’s “national

interests” against the threat of (Kurdish) terrorism: “We try to use every traditional

and innovative method of communication in order to explain our country’s fight

against terrorism in the most accurate way […] With regard to all operations that

we undertake to protect our national interests, such as the Peace Spring Operation,

we provide the world press with the necessary accurate information and technical

infrastructure needed to ensure fair coverage”.

The framing of an issue as a threat to the “national interest”, or to “national

security”, results from political processes, not from any intrinsic characteristics of

the issue at hand. When an issue is successfully framed as a threat to the “national

interest”, or to “national security”, certain courses of action are authorized, while

others are foreclosed. In addition, the process framing an issue as a threat to the

“national interest”, or to “national security” in itself contributes to bring into

existence the “national” that is being referred to as if it was pre-existent. In this

particular case, the “national” seems to exclude not only some segments of the

Kurdish population, but government opponents in general.

In the following quote, we can discern the strands of ‘encirclement’, ‘telling

the right message’ and ‘cult of personality’ being woven together, culminating in

the conjuring of a country that needs to be defended: “If Turkey had not had a

strong leader like Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the turbulence that began in 2010 [the

Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil war] would have swallowed us up. Despite all

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these storms, we were able to tip the scales in Turkey’s favor, and it has happened

thanks to our President’s leadership […] The Operation Peace Spring has been

ordered by this strong leadership. It was possible to take a step, which has been

opposed by the whole world […] our President […] destroyed that terror corridor.

What I’m trying to learn from our President is the following: […] no concessions

should be made in a situation that would be against our country” (Altun 2020).

Conclusion

Departing from a poststructuralist understanding, this article made the

argument that Turkish PD, instead of reflecting or projecting a pre-existent Turkish

story, image or identity, is one of the many practices through which political and

societal actors attempt to fix the meaning of Turkey’s many stories, images and

(precarious and fragmented) identities. Throughout the article, we attempted to

show that AKP PD’s privileged discursive tropes — the (positive) Ottoman legacy

and Turkey as a ‘benign’ emerging power — had to be modulated in a context

of domestic authoritarianism and military interventions abroad. As the security

and hard-power-based politics of the former governments came to the fore,

a stress on AKP’s difference became harder to sustain. In an effort to legitimize

militarized and anti-democratic actions, ‘old’ Kemalist discourses of encirclement

were recycled, the positive Ottoman legacy lost prominence and Turkey as a

‘benign’ emerging power attempted to survive via threads of hospitality to Syrian

refugees and President Erdogan as a savior and champion of Muslims around

the world.

Through all these processes, it becomes clear that Turkey is composed of a

multiplicity of institutions and peoples, and, as such, will have multiple voices

which produce multiple meanings, in spite of the partial fixity attempted through

the frequent repetition of privileged themes. Although such attempts are never

fully successful, they are not inconsequential: through them, boundaries are

enacted; subjects, objects and the relations between them are constituted; and

certain ways of being and acting are authorized, while others are foreclosed. In

particular, we showed how the mobilization of discourses associated with ‘old’

Kemalist elites helped legitimize militarized foreign policy actions which the AKP

had claimed had been left behind.

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