The use of diplomacy: The example of the 15 July 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt

After the Westphalia treaties, in international relations, the concepts of negotiations, agreements, hard power, geo-political thought, peace and war have been translated into modern meanings. . Thanks to the developing information and communication technologies, the concept of digital diplomacy borned. At this study, firstly, the history of diplomacy will be examined in order to understand the transformation of classical diplomacy into digital diplomacy. The concepts of public diplomacy and soft power will be discussed, the concept of digital diplomacy will be defined, and local and global digital diplomacy activities and strategies will be exemplified. In the July 15 Coup Attempt, the use of information and communication technologies will be examined and how Turkey actively uses digital diplomacy will be discussed. Focusing on the night of July 15 and the next day, the use of digital diplomacy by government officials, citizens and non-state actors, and relevant social media accounts and posts will be examined. As a research method, Twitter has been studied as the main social platform. The purpose of study is to emphasize that states, especially for Turkey, should attach importance to digital diplomacy practices to survive in the digitalizing world. It is to be able to create an idea about what kind of studies can be done for this.