The role of Syrian asylum seeker in Turkish public diplomacy

With the AK Party's coming to power in 2003, Turkey started to use public diplomacy policies effectively in order to increase its soft power in international public opinion. Until 2011, it achieved a great deal of success in its soft power-based public diplomacy policy. On the other hand, as a result of the Arab Spring in 2011, Turkey has implemented soft power-based policies as well as hard power and security-oriented policies. This situation caused the soft power-based policy of Turkey, which has been pursued since 2003, to a great extent and caused it to become isolated in the region. Turkey has turned to humanitarian diplomacy-based public diplomacy policies in order to regain its damaged soft power. In this context, Syrian refugees who took refuge in Turkey by escaping the Civil War in Syria created important soft power opportunities for Turkish public diplomacy. In this study, the relationship between humanitarian diplomacy and public diplomacy will be examined, and the effects of humanitarian diplomacy on public diplomacy will be discussed. At the centre of the study, the role of humanitarian diplomacy activities that Turkey has done for Syrian refugees in the period from 2011 to 2022, when the study is completed, on Turkish public diplomacy will be examined.