Soft power policies of Türkiye, Russia and China from a comparative perspective in the geography of Yugoslavia

In this thesis, the language and cultural policies followed by Turkey, China, and Russia in the ex-Yugoslavia were examined from a comparative perspective. During the preparation of the thesis, only the language and cultural institutes of the countries in question were taken into consideration. In addition, since the soft power policies of these countries were evaluated comparatively, it was clearly understood which mentioned country stood out in the competition. The states that emerged after the dissolution of Yugoslavia (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Slovenia) led to a new areas of influence for the external powers. In this context, all three countries aimed to dominate the new states that emerged in the ex-Yugoslavia. The study aims to shed light on the development and current consequences of this struggle for influence. This thesis focuses on the period after 2000's. Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the end of the armed struggle in the early 2000's and the establishment of peace were effective in selecting in these cases. Secondly, the fact that all three actors started their cultural and language policies in a relatively late period (in the 2000's) was decisive in determining the period under review. Yunus Emre Institute (Turkey), Confucius Institute (China) and Russian World Foundation (Russia) were the main institutions whose activities were examined in depth. Comparative field analysis was preferred as the method of the study. For this purpose, an extensive field research was conducted and various interviews were carried out to provide primary data supporting the claims made in the thesis. A semi-structured interviews were conducted by adopting open-ended questions. The data obtained from these interviews formed the basis to test the study's hypothesis. In addition, the data gethered from the field were supported by a literature review. The purpose of choosing this method is to try to show that the results of the activities of the three countries that follow language and cultural policies on the territory of the former Yugoslavia vary from region to region.