The People Republic of China's public diplomacy activities towards Turkey

The People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949 after the civil war in the country was won under the leadership of Communist leader Mao Zedong. During his presidency, the PRC followed inward-oriented and peaceful policies and developed good relations with its neighbors. However, As a result of the "Reform and Opening Out" policies implemented in 1978, first it realized its economic development and became the production center of the world. It has emerged as an important actor in world politics in the 21st century, as a result of the economic revolution it conducted in the last quarter of the 20th century. The 21st century is the beginning of a century in which economic development is followed by political and military development for the PRC. In this century, the PRC started to follow an active policy in international politics and appeared as a new power center in the east against the unipolar world order. There are certain gains need to be achieved in foreign policy for the PRC. These can be listed as being a country that has an influence on international politics to create sphere of influence to mention various big problems as little as possible, mainly gross human rights problems that occur within is political boundaries and being an alternative to the current situation as a new power center, accessing the energy, raw material resources and finding a market for its increased production which are the outcomes of its developing economy. In order to achieve these goals, the PRC develops policies for many countries by using various foreign policy instruments. One of these foreign policy instrument is the public diplomacy. The PRC actively conducts public diplomacy activities through its rising economical power, unique culture and media. One of the countries which is the target of PRC's activities is Turkey. The relations of the two new Republics which were built on ancient civilizations in the first half of the 20th century, have started relatively recently. The relations, which officially started in 1971, gained intensity with the end of the Cold War, but their real breakthrough was realized in the second decade of the 21st century. Turkey is an important country for the PRC due to its geographical location, relations with the West, having a Muslim population and NATO membership. For PRC, the other importance of Turkey is the existence of the specific bound between the East Turkestan within the boundaries of PRC and Turkey. Furthermore, the advantageous position of the PRC in the trade between the two countries makes Turkey an important country for PRC. In addition to all these, the other reason why Turkey is seen as an important actor for this country is because Turkey is part of the Belt and Road Initiative which was announced by the PRC in 2013. Due to all these reasons, there has been a significant increase in PRC's public diplomacy activities towards Turkey in the 21st century. This study has importance for examining the increasing public diplomacy activities of the PRC towards Turkey and investigating in the context of reciprocity principle of the relations between the two countries.