Political Intermediaries and Turkey’s State-to-Society Diplomacy in the Balkans

Year 2018, Volume: 6 Issue: 1, 75 - 96, 04.04.2018

Hüsrev Tabak

https://doi.org/10.14782/marusbd.412630

Abstract

The Justice and Development Party governments in Turkey have placed public diplomacy into the
service of foreign policy as a multi-dimensional tool-kit to be utilized in extending the overseas
communication beyond governments towards their publics. And this may be the first time in the
Republican history that by the Justice and Development Party era, people abroad have found Turkey’s
mission bodies more accessible and reachable in terms of both institutional presence and of institutional
willingness to involve in their affairs/problems. The Justice and Development Party governments have
accordingly adopted a comprehensive ‘state-to-society’ public diplomacy agenda, targeting for instance
the so-called ‘kin communities’, by which shared civilizational memories, values and histories are
often recalled and promoted in building relations. The target communities have thus been encouraged
to embrace such identity frames and hence to re-negotiate and when possible redefine their sense
of belonging in a civilizational sense. This is a development which brings the constitutive appeal of
the country’s new foreign policy into a brighter light. Based on this, this paper initially questions the
constitutive influences Turkey has possibly posed to the targeted communities abroad. Moreover,
in the implementation of such state-to-society public diplomacy, certain political figures in Turkey
have functioned as intermediaries between the public diplomacy bureaucracy and the communities
abroad, as facilitators of Turkey’s access to the targeted communities, and vice versa. These political
elites have mostly been the members of the ruling party in the Parliament, acted as the chairman of
inter-parliamentary friendship groups, accompanied prime ministers and presidents in their visits to
target communities, and used their personal ties and networks to bring the targeted communities closer
to Turkey, and vice versa. They therefore have direct involvement in the conduct of overseas stateto-
society policy and have personally contributed to the country’s public diplomacy campaigns. This
paper, at this juncture, secondly aims to unfold this intermediary role of the political elites, which
would help garner a better understanding of the sources and causes of Turkey’s societal influences
abroad. The paper uses Turkey’s relations with the Bosniak and Albanian communities in the Balkans
as case studies to trace the state-to-society diplomacy and the intermediaries’ roles within it. To better
observe both the influence and the intermediaries’ facilitative role, interviews are conducted with some
of the political intermediaries who took part in Turkey’s reach to the kin communities in the Balkans.

Keywords

Public Diplomacy, Political Intermediaries, Foreign Policy, Turkey, Balkans

Siyasi aracılar ve Türkiye’nin Balkanlarda Devletten-Topluma Yönlü Diplomasisi

Abstract

Türkiye’de Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi hükümetleri kamu diplomasisini, yurtdışı iletişimi ülke
yönetimlerinin ötesinde halklara doğru taşımak için kullanılacak stratejik bir dil ve çok-boyutlu
bir enstrüman olarak, dış politikanın hizmetine sundu. Ve belki de Cumhuriyet tarihinde ilk kez
yurtdışındaki insanlar, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi dönemiyle birlikte, Türkiye’nin misyon kurumlarını
hem kurumsal mevcudiyet hem de onların ilişkilerine/sorunlarına müdahil olma istekliliği anlamında
daha erişilebilir ve ulaşılabilir buldular. İletişime geçilen halkların ilişkilerine/sorunlarına müdahil olma
istekliliği kapsamında Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi hükümetleri kapsamlı bir devletten-topluma yönlü,
örneğin akraba toplulukları hedef alan, bir kamu diplomasisi gündemi benimsedi ve bu kapsamda
ilgili topluluklarla ilişki geliştirilirken ortak medeniyet hafızası, değerleri ve tarihi sıklıkla hatırlatıldı
ve desteklendi. Hedef topluluklar da bu minvalde kimlikleri üzerine düşünürken ilgili medeniyetsel
zihni çerçeveleri benimsemeleri ve aidiyetlerini medeniyete referansla yeniden müzakere etmeleri ve
mümkünse yeniden tanımlamaları yönünde teşvik edildi. Bu durum ülkenin yeni dış politikasında
mevcut kurucu (şekillendirici ve etki doğurucu) istekliliği daha da görünür kılan bir gelişmedir.
Bu zeminde, bu çalışma da öncelikli olarak Türkiye’nin hedef topluluklar üzerinde oluşturdukları
muhtemel kurucu etkileri sorgulamaktadır. Dahası, ilgili devletten-topluma yönlü kamu diplomasisinin
yürütülmesinde, Türkiye’de belirli siyasi figürler kamu diplomasisi bürokrasisi ile yurt dışındaki
topluluklar arasında, Türkiye’nin o topluluklara o toplulukların da Türkiye’ye erişimini kolaylaştıran,
aracılar olarak görev aldılar. Bu siyasi elitler ekseriyetle parlamentoda iktidar partisi üyelerindendir,
parlamentolar arası dostluk grubu başkanlıkları yapmışlardır, hedef toplulukları da içeren yurtdışı
gezilerinde başbakanlara ve cumhurbaşkanlarına eşlik etmişlerdir ve kişisel bağlantılarını kullanarak
hedef toplulukları Türkiye’ye Türkiye’yi de hedef topluluklara yakınlaştırmışlardır. Onlar ayrıca,
ülke dışındaki devletten-topluma yönlü siyasetin uygulanmasında doğrudan rol almışlar ve ülkenin
kamu diplomasisi uğraşlarına doğrudan kişisel katkı sunmuşlardır. Bu makale, tam da bu noktada,
ikinci olarak ilgili siyasi elitlerin aracılık rolünü açığa çıkartmayı hedeflemektedir; bu Türkiye’nin
yurtdışındaki etkilerinin kaynaklarının ve nedenlerinin daha iyi anlaşılmasına yardımcı olacaktır.
Çalışma, devletten-topluma yönlü diplomasinin ve aracıların bundaki rollerinin izini sürmek için
Türkiye’nin Balkanlar’da yaşayan Boşnak ve Arnavut topluluklarla ilişkilerini vaka incelemesi olarak
seçmiştir. Çalışma kapsamında, bahsi geçen etkiyi ve aracıların bu etkinin oluşumundaki kolaylaştırıcı
rollerini daha iyi gözlemleyebilmek için Türkiye’nin Balkanlarda yaşayan topluluklarla ilişki geliştirmesi
sürecinde yer almış bazı siyasi aracılarla röportajlar yapılmıştır.

Keywords

Kamu Diplomasisi, Siyasi Aracılar, Dış Politika, Türkiye, Balkanlar

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