Public diplomacy as an international public relations activity a study on the international students studying in Türkiye

This study seeks to answer the question, "Is the YTB Turkey Scholarships program an effective public diplomacy tool for Turkey?" The research employs a quantitative research method. The population of the study consists of students who came to Turkey under the YTB Turkey Scholarships program. The sample includes foreign students who came to Turkey under the YTB Turkey Scholarships program in Konya. In this context, a survey was conducted with 423 international students who are currently studying or have graduated under the YTB Turkey Scholarships program. The study includes students who are studying or have graduated from TÖMER, undergraduate, and graduate programs in Konya since the initiation of the YTB Turkey Scholarships program in 2012. The data collection tool used was the RADIO ('Relationship Assessment of Diplomatic Interaction Outcome') scale developed by Tam and Kim (2017). Mainly Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor analysis was conducted for the RADIO scale. Then, in the analysis of the data obtained, ANOVA and independent samples t-test were performed with the help of the "IBM SPSS Statistics 26" software. The Tukey test was used as a post hoc test to identify significant differences between groups. According to the results of the research, it was observed that students generally have a high level of trust in Turkey. Additionally, students generally support Turkey's international stance, value long-term relationships with Turkey, and have a high level of curiosity and interest towards the country. In terms of relational continuity, students aged 31 and over had higher relational continuity scores compared to students aged 20 and below, female students had higher scores compared to male students, and graduates and graduate students had higher scores compared to TÖMER students. Students from Turkic Republics and the Balkans had higher levels of trust and empathy compared to other students, students in the social sciences field had higher satisfaction, attention, and curiosity scores compared to students from other departments, and students who stayed for more than five years had higher empathy scores compared to those who stayed for less than one year. However, students who stayed for less than one year had higher relational curiosity scores compared to other students. These findings suggest that foreign students coming to Turkey generally hold a positive view, and the YTB Turkey Scholarships program is an effective tool in public diplomacy activities. Recommendations were provided to stakeholders based on the results.