Turkey's soft power applications and i̇ts results i̇n Middle East between the years of 2003-2011

Soft power is a very popular and controversial concept as well in recent years in the discipline of international relations. The concept, drawing attention to a different dimension of power, has gained importance especially after the Cold War period and has had an important agenda in academic discussions. The concept which expresses a state's being taken into the consideration thanks to its distinctive features by other states and being attraction centre within the sight of the other states is quite advantageous type of power when compared to the hard power that is more difficult to get result and expensive in a way. This type of power used by many states in the world, especially the USA, EU, Japan and Great Britain, has been started to be used by Turkey as well especially in the post-2002 period, particularly in the Middle East, in the Balkans and Caucasus which are located in the near-periphery of Turkey. Of course, the economic and political achievements that Turkey attained in the post-2002 period have had the major role in the emergence of this situation. When the negative conditions within the states in the Middle East geography are considered, Turkey became a center of attraction until the Syrian Civil War which started in 2011 within the sight of the other countries especially the Arab states. During this period, Turkey became regonal power being followed and imitated in the Middle East geography because of the reasons such as being a Muslim state and democratic governance especially over the peoples. When the elements that enable Turkey to be able to use the soft power factors in the Middle East region are looked, it is a known fact that the culture and history, geopolitical location and geography and the other political factors that Turkey possesses have great importance. This situation already covers the basic components of soft power. In this study, soft power applications in the Middle East in Turkey's foreign policy applications are explained by analysing the period between 2003 and 2011.