Yunus Emre Institute as a public diplomacy tool on soft power activities in Turkey

One of the most obvious results of the complicated transformations in the nature and structure of power in international relations, based on reasons such as globalization and the end of bipolarity, is the transition to the concept of soft power. According to this concept, military and economic deterrence in interstate containment doctrines give place to the art of persuasion and skill in intercommunal relations. By revising the construction of identity and culture in societies, power, which policy practitioners see as the only tool, has taken on a new dimension, particularly with the axis shift experienced through the cultural subject. At this point, countries started to attempt new ventures to prove themselves internationally in terms of strength, acceptance by opposing states, and strengthening their current positions. While these initiatives were mostly made with the physical dimension (violence) and traditional diplomacy tools in the past, in recent times, they have turned to soft power and public diplomacy as a complement to these. Turkey, which came to terms with this mode of diplomacy later than other countries, is making strides toward becoming an effective power and prestige on the global stage, so to speak, by building the resultant power on the instruments of this power. Increasing its visibility with the active policies it pursues, Turkey, with the aim of becoming a country that is closely followed and taken as an example by being curious in the international arena, will share the transformation it has experienced within the framework of this expectation, the impact of Turkish soft power on public diplomacy, and the strategies it will follow in achieving its future goals through the institutions it is planning. The Yunus Emre Institution is most likely one of these institutions. The institution, which is the first cultural institute in Turkey, aims to serve this mission of Turkey within the scope of the various activities it carries out in the national and international fields with the bidirectional asymmetric information model it has adopted. In this study, it has been investigated whether Yunus Emre Enstitüsü fulfils this purpose and how effective it is as an institutional actor and a public diplomacy tool. As a result of the evaluation of the findings obtained by the netrographic study method, it has been determined that the Institute has aspects that are open to criticism and development, as well as the successes it has achieved in the spread of the Turkish language and culture.