Türkiye and West Africa Relations in the Perspective of Public Diplomacy: The Cases of Senegal, Ivory Coast, Niger and Guinea-Bissau

Abstract

This dissertation is focused on an overview of Türkiye’s increased engagement with Africa, particularly West Africa in recent years. It analyses this relationship by applying some concepts like soft power - the influences of its instruments - in international politics. In sum, it examines this engagement, focusing on Türkiye-Africa relations, especially since ‘The 1998 Opening Action Plan’ relative to the enhancement of cooperation in the political, economic, and cultural fields. The study tries to answer the main questions of why Türkiye has so much engagement and a very fast opening toward Africa, especially in West Africa, and how the interaction is conducted. The study focuses on the case of Türkiye and the Western African zone (comparatively, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Niger, and Guinea-Bissau), examining the interaction (diplomacy) between Türkiye and these countries. It explores the aspects and interests of this cooperation from the perspective of a combination of classic diplomacy, economic diplomacy, and cultural diplomacy (education-exchange diplomacy). In a large and analytic framework, this cooperation is assessed through three variables: Political and diplomatic issues, economic and trade issues, and cultural issues. All centered on three major theoretical frameworks: Public diplomacy, economic diplomacy, and exchange diplomacy. The study is divided into four main chapters, also axed into sections. The first chapter contextualizes the background of the research, bringing up the main question and the assumptions of the structure of the study. The second chapter examines the theoretical framework of the dissertation by analyzing the main concepts like foreign policy, international relations, soft power, economic diplomacy, and public diplomacy. The third chapter explores an overview of the relations between Türkiye and Africa, especially West Africa, and gives a brief idea of Türkiye, Africa, and the above-mentioned countries. The fourth one examines the mechanisms, strategies, aspects, and interests of the cooperation between Türkiye and the concerned countries. The fifth and last part of the dissertation provides some findings and analyzes the challenges and limits of cooperation. For the study, both primary and secondary data were used by exploring the qualitative method of data collection. The primary data was acquired through semi-structured interviews with the diplomatic missions and some relevant institutions of both the four countries in question, as well as Türkiye. The secondary data was collected from different platforms of already existing data. These two types of data allowed the realization of this dissertation. The findings of the dissertation revealed several remarkable accomplishments, the most notable of which is economically significant. Considering the challenges of this cooperation, the study concludes with recommendations for the improvement and consolidation of the mechanisms of follow-up of cooperation and the diversification of the areas of cooperation to insure more achievements.