Culture and language in Türkiye's Kazakhstan policy

Kazakhstan, which stands out with its central location in Central Asia, declared its independence on 16 December 1991, and decided to continue as an independent and democratic country. Kazakhstan and Türkiye, whose historical circumstances had separated to the point of losing their ties, seized the opportunity to re-establish contacts at the multilateral level. Following this decision of independence taken by the Kazakh state, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs took immediate action. Türkiye was the first country in the world to recognize Kazakhstan and open an embassy there. The significance of this exceptional relationship, which has been gaining momentum every day since then, is based first and foremost on common culture, which forms an important basis for developing political, commercial, economic, and humanitarian cooperation. This study aims to discuss Türkiye's cultural and language policies towards Kazakhstan. The theoretical framework of the subject is soft power. The limitation of the thesis covers the period from 1991 to 2023. The study's primary question is, "Through which institutions and organizations are Türkiye's cultural and linguistic policies towards Kazakhstan carried out, and what are these activities?" The secondary questions are "What is the position of Turkey in the public opinion of Kazakhstan?" and "How are the reflections of the soft power policies realized in Turkish-Kazakh relations?" In order to answer the questions and test the assumptions of the study, a mixed approach was adopted, using qualitative and quantitative methods together. In this regard, Türkiye's soft power was mainly scrutinized. In addition, Turkology departments in Kazakhstan, teaching of Turkish, Türkiye scholarships, Turkish TV series, the presence of Turkish media, and the current state of tourism were also analyzed. Türkiye's policies towards the region have been analyzed through interviews and archival research in the field.