Özet:

Within globalization process local governments and municipalities have come to the fore as actors in diplomacy, especially in the second half of the 20th century. These diplomatic activities of local governments are named as local government diplomacy as a sub-branch of public diplomacy.In this study, firstly, the concept of local government diplomacy is discussed in the main framework. Later on the concept of local government diplomacy and legal infrastructure of local governmentdiplomacy in Turkey have been discussed. In addition, the sister city implementation and the sister city practices of the municipalities in Istanbul are examined. In the study, an answer was sought for exactly what local government diplomacy is, why and how to apply the sister city implementation and the types of sister city practices of the municipalities in Istanbul.As a result, it is seen that the diplomatic initiatives of local governments are named in many different ways in the literature and there are some factors for the establishment of sustainable and functional sister city relations.Besides, a legal infrastructure was created for local government diplomacy activities by law in Turkey, municipalities in local government diplomacy in Turkey were found as the most important actors to come forward especially with cultural and humanitarian activities.

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