Marketing as a cultural diplomacy weapon: Qualitative research on Türkiye scholarships students studying in Ankara

Today, many countries benefit from soft power elements in order to gain the sympathy of other countries' publics and stakeholders and to attract these masses. At this point, cultural diplomacy channels, cultural institutions, and international student mobility have gained great importance since the end of the cold war up to the present. When the literature is reviewed, it is seen that there are studies in different disciplines examining Turkey's soft power and cultural diplomacy activities within the framework of education diplomacy through Türkiye Scholarships. International students, who are seen as volunteer ambassadors by YTB, are in the position of voluntary "brand ambassadors" of Turkey abroad. In this context, it is aimed that this study will contribute to the marketing literature as qualitative research that examines Turkey's cultural diplomacy activities from the marketing perspective and evaluates the effects of these activities on nation brand perception through international students. The aim of this study is to determine how the activities of public institutions such as Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), Yunus Emre Institute (YEE), Turkish Maarif Foundation, and Kızılay- which carry out public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, cooperation, development, and humanitarian diplomacy activities- in the nation brand area are perceived by the Türkiye Scholarships students in their countries and regions. Accordingly, "the effect of cultural diplomacy activities as a marketing tool in the context of country brand perception" is the main problem statement of the study. In the first part of the study, the conceptual framework of soft power is explained; the cultural diplomacy practices with government scholarships of five countries determined as France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the USA, and China as well as Turkey are included. In the second part, the conceptual frameworks of country image and nation branding are presented, and Alexander Buhmann's 4D country image model is included. In the final part, a total of 24 international students from 17 countries among Türkiye Scholarship students studying in Ankara, which constitutes the universe of the research, were reached by using purposeful sampling and snowball sampling technique. The in-depth interview technique, which is one of the qualitative data collection techniques, and structured and semi-structured interview questions were used in the research. In order to understand students' views more clearly, to see the personal approaches of the participants in a holistic way, and to convey the flow of the subject during the interview without being disturbed, the transcripts obtained from the interviews were presented in their full form in the findings section. The data obtained were discussed, and the research was concluded with conclusions and recommendations.