Abstract:

This study takes one of the most important elements of Turkey's hard power, Turkish Armed Forces as an actor of Turkish public diplomacy. In this context, the participation of the Turkish Armed Forces in peace keeping operations and civil-military cooperation activities within those operations as well as bilateral military education cooperation activities and military aid are evaluated as public diplomacy activities. Following the discussion on the use of military power in the operation field of soft power - public diplomacy - in the first section of the article, the contribution of the mentioned activities to the perception of Turkey in foreign countries and Turkish public diplomacy relatedly is examined. It is argued that the participation to peace keeping operations supports the principle of "Peace at Home, Peace in the World" of Turkish foreign policy and provides Turkey seen as a global public good servant, Civil-Military Cooperation activities feeds the strong Turkey image by helping the people suffering from war and conflicts besides contributing to the presentation of Turkey and Turkish culture abroad, military education cooperation activities support active Turkish foreign policy for it paves the way for improving economic and political relations and promoting good relations and cooperation with Turkey as other counties see those activities as a model.

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