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  • Diplomats Distressed Abroad Focus On Public Diplomacy At Home

    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
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