Public diplomacy and TRT Arabic

It was announced a few days ago that a "public diplomacy coordinatorship" had been established within the State Ministry attached to Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç. The purpose of this coordinatorship, headed by İbrahim Kalın, was presented as coordinating the work already being carried out at the level of many state institutions on promoting Turkey more effectively, particularly in the outside world and at the societal level, and on systematically developing a better image for it. A draft road map has been drawn up on what can be done for this. As part of this road map, meetings were held with journalists and representatives of think tanks, and consultations were conducted by organizing a workshop.

On top of the winds that have for quite some time been blowing very favorably in Turkey's foreign policy, the search to bring an effective public diplomacy effort into play signifies a leap in level. The belief that Turkey has lost a great deal because it has not been able to promote well what it has done up to now is generally an idea that is accepted very easily. Yet the problem is, most of the time, a far more fundamental one than being unable to promote the good things you do or Turkey's not being promoted well. Frankly, the problem has had to do with Turkey's not being good rather than with its not being promoted well. When Turkey is good, when it has brought its own democracy, its respect for human rights, its care for human values to a certain level, a very good image already arises from this situation, to the point that very little promotion is needed.

Therefore the problem can in a sense be put this way: Is it possible to make a bad country look "good" with good public diplomacy?

Over the last seven years Turkey has undergone a rapidly changing and quite positive image transformation in the outside world. How much of this image transformation has come about thanks to effective promotion? While torture in Turkey's prisons was knee-deep, could it have presented itself as a champion in respect for human rights through good promotion?

One of the most important criticisms made from outside about Turkey until recently concerned torture in prisons and police stations. Is the cessation of these criticisms today due to effective promotion, or is it thanks to the fact that the torture incidents that were the subject of these criticisms are really no longer recorded?

Indeed, it is now understood that presenting to the outside, through good public diplomacy, a country extremely disrespectful of human rights as a good one not only has no value but is in fact not effective either. Turkey's best promotion lies in its being able to show truly good governance in every respect. However good a packaging you try to present a bad product in, you cannot escape, within a short time, the realization of "what kind of goods" lie inside that packaging.

The rejection of the 1 March motion made the most effective promotion possible about Turkey all over the world; the prime minister's "one minute" outburst in Davos did the same in many parts of the world, primarily in Arab countries. Turkey's new foreign policy, woven with its democratization program and diplomatic initiatives, also feeds a growing volume of foreign trade, and all of it together amounts to the most effective promotion of Turkey possible. Meanwhile, the new situation arising from the spread of Turkish schools across the whole world also constitutes the most important social capital of Turkey's public diplomacy.

As Turkey raises its own internal quality, this quality reflects outward on its own. At this stage the job for public diplomacy actually becomes considerably easier. Promoting such a Turkey to the world, and promoting it as "good" at that, is not difficult at all. I am sure nobody would want to do it the other way around.

Of course, meanwhile, the performance TRT has shown in displaying this rising quality of Turkey is admirable in every respect. The TRT opening, which started with TRT Şeş, continued with TRT AVAZ and TRT Türk, and has now widened its reach with the El-Türkiye (TRT Arap) channel addressing an Arab world of 300 million, constitutes the most serious steps possible also in the field of public diplomacy. The channel has already become one of the most curiously awaited and closely watched channels of the Arab world. Even this interest is a result of Turkey's already growing influence, but these TV channels play a role that multiplies both this interest and this influence.

When you are a "good" society with your democracy, your economy and your social quality, promoting it is very easy, but even though you have secured all these qualities, you still cannot neglect promotion.

The effect of a promotion that even the one doing it believes in again increases multiplicatively, and this in turn has the effect of raising quality further. That is why the aim of public diplomacy is not merely one-way propaganda or promotion but also an interaction whose effect is felt more with each passing day.

When you explain yourself to someone else, after all, you also think of putting yourself in order. As long as what is understood by public diplomacy is not simply eyewash.