Turkish public diplomacy in the context of the new turkish foreign policy: the example of wWstern Balkans

Increasing significance of identities, ideas and public opinion in international relations have caused to important outcomes in the scope of theory and practice. At this moment in time, public diplomacy and soft power have been started to rediscover and gained more institutional aspect. Especially after 2002, Turkey who has gained a progress trend in international relations, has studied to give more importance to discovering his own soft power and public diplomacy practices. Within the framework of ontological backgrounds and imaginations of new comers of government, Turkey has started to succeed a foreign policy, named as 'new' Turkish Foreign Policy. 'New' refers to a content of the foreign policy and conceptualization of the foreign policy. Preferably, Turkish Public Diplomacy has targeted to his near geography where cultural and historical ties exist. In terms of it, Western Balkan region has gained more value for foreign policy makers. In this work, broadly we aimed to why some public diplomacy practices especially 'religious diplomacy', 'local diplomacy', 'digital diplomacy and media' should have been more prioritized particularly in Western Balkan region.