Sports Diplomacy and Propaganda in Turkish Foreign Policy in the Early Republican Period

Abstract

Cultural diplomacy is the promotion of a nation’s unique heritage, manifesting itself in everything from art to cuisine, to achieve a state’s foreign policy goals. While the manifestations above are commonly invoked in summarizing Turkey’s cultural diplomacy over the last century, research focused on the role of sports in Turkish political history is scant. The Republic of Turkey has used sports as a tool of diplomacy and peacebuilding since its establishment following the First World War. This study outlines some of the Republic’s first forays into cultural diplomacy with sports by exploring Turkey’s participation in the Olympic games, use of sports as a tool for Turkish-Greek rapprochement, and use of sports in developing relations with the Soviet Union in the interwar period. Turkish State Archives, periodicals, and research studies were used as the main sources. The preliminary findings reveal that the efforts of the Republican period to develop diplomatic ties using international sports were achieved alongside the Republic’s foreign policy prerogatives in Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and neighboring countries. Notably, this study does not find that Turkey used athletics to construct similar diplomatic relationships with Western European nations, such as the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.