International culture institutes in Turkiye in the context of soft power

Government-supported international cultural institutes, the early examples of which were seen in the 19th century with the Alliance Française and the Dante Alighieri Society, have become an important instrument of the soft powers of their countries in the 21st century. Even the countries that did not give enough importance to cultural promotion activities and language education that were carried out in the international arena, instead investing only in hard power, have realized the importance of soft power in the present age. From this point of view, the reason why a country needs to introduce its language, culture, and art and allocate material and human resources to other countries in today's global neo-liberal world is main point of the study. In this context, the aim of the thesis is to reveal the role and functions of international cultural institutes in Turkiye by making use of the concept of soft power in the literature. In this study, the aims, policies, and activities of these institutes are examined. Thus, it is aimed to understand the existential functions and roles of these institutes. In this study, besides literature review, semi-structured in-depth interview, which is another technique of qualitative research method, was used to collect data. Based on the data obtained, the ways in which international cultural institutes benefit from all attractive cultural tools, from the language of their own country to the arts, with the aim of influencing the citizens of the target countries in favor of their own countries, winning their hearts, creating sympathy and positive image were revealed.