DIPLOMATS DISTRESSED ABROAD FOCUS ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AT HOME

Hurriyet
March 18 2010
Turkey

Turkish diplomats, distressed by the deadlock on the divided island
of Cyprus, up-and-downs in the EU accession process and diplomatic
rows stemming from the Armenian ‘genocide’ resolutions, are stepping
up public diplomacy efforts at home.

"In order to determine the effects [of foreign policy related]
developments, a new project has been launched aimed to widen the public
affairs works across the country," Turkish Foreign Ministry noted in
a written-statement released late Wednesday. "It is an important part
of our public diplomacy strategy."

Headed by Ambassador Engin Soysal, three diplomats are visiting the
Black Sea province of Trabzon on March 18-19. Soysal will address
a panel in the Black Sea Technical University and hold talks with
local authorities, businessmen and non-governmental organizations in
an effort to explain the existing foreign policy strategies.

It will be the first one, but not the last. Ankara has released that
it would be difficult to go further without public support. Similar
programs will take place in 20 other provinces including Konya, Adana,
Denizli, Afyon and Erzurum.

The decision makers for the normalization with Armenia will try to
convince the nationalist thought of "Why should we open borders to
those Armenians who killed our grandparents and occupied the land of
our Azeri brothers."

Diplomats engaged in EU affairs will explain whether Turkey compromises
to "the prejudicial union" or works to increase the living standards
at home.

Once the government is backed by the public, it will be easy to ratify
the protocols in Parliament and step-up the reforms towards the EU bid.

Increasing interaction between global, regional and local developments
has a direct effect on foreign policies, the statement outlined. "In
this respect, it is needed to adopt new and participatory attitude
as well as to inform the public about the politics at stage."

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had kicked-off his public diplomacy
in January when he visited southeastern province of Mardin along with
a delegation crowd. During this trip, the diplomats who generally
looked like serious elitist chatted and played cards with villagers
and danced to Kurdish folk songs in the evening.

The foreign ministry has also set-up its profile on both facebook
and twitter