Abstract:

The concept of paradiplomacy, which means that local governments can establish various partnerships in the international arena and internationalize through these partnerships, emerges as a new concept that has started to be popular in recent years. The network of relations has established is actually much older, and this concept describes the diplomatic activities of local governments. It is noteworthy that these relations, which are met with criticism and anxiety by many segments, are increasing day by day due to the fact that multi-actor approaches such as globalization and regionalization support localization tendencies and that nation states are pushed into the background in this process. Paradiplomacy activities, which are generally carried out with membership to international organizations and sister city practices, are also gaining momentum in Turkey, which stands out with its centralized and unitary state structure. It is seen that municipalities in Turkey have established membership with 138 different international organizations, and sister city relations with 1909 cities and city administrations, with these activities, which have been paved with various regulations, especially local government legislation. With this study, which deals with the legal basis and current status of these relations, it is aimed to contribute to the limited studies in the Turkish literature on paradiplomacy. In this study, in which the document review method was used as the data collection technique, literature review and national and international written sources were examined. In addition, the official web pages of international organizations were examined, current membership status and numbers were determined, tables and statistical data shared by the Union of Municipalities of Turkey and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization were used.

Keywords: