Humanitarian, hospitable and generous

Turkish Public Diplomacy’s ‘story’ in times of authoritarianism and military interventionism

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 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.