Ideology and Public Diplomacy: Turkish Neo-Ottomanism

Abstract

Turkey, as most countries in the world, is increasingly employing public diplomacy methods to promote its interests and to reach foreign audience in order to create soft power. In order to understand the neo-Ottoman ideology and the practices used by Turkish public diplomacy institutions in the attempt to influence foreign audiences and create soft power, we will analyse, in the present paper, the way in which neo-Ottoman ideas and theses have been inserted into various activities and actions subsumed under public diplomacy, and we will identify the regions in different areas of the world where public opinion has become a target group. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) has made public its foreign policy goals, including that of increasing its influence in Muslim societies in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Considering the mentioned aspects, the paper explores the way in which AKP uses the instruments and institutions specific to public diplomacy to promote a neo-Ottoman ideology and to organise a foreign policy that reflects Ottoman imperial times.