TURKEY’S SOFT POWER POLICY TOWARDS THE BALKANS

According to the official policy of Turkey, the Balkans are considered “as a sphere of influence since Turkey is also a Balkan country. The country pursues its main objectives in the region of “maintaining and strengthening peace, stability and sustainable development”, and that it “continues to support the accession of all the countries of the region to Europe and Euro-Atlantic institutions. “. In the “Balkan” policy of Turkey, a major role plays its diplomatic institution TIKA (Türk İşbirliği ve Koordinasyon Ajansı Başkanlığı, Turkish Agency for Cooperation and Coordination„, created in 1992 and active in the region since its creation. The case of the presence of Turkey in the Balkans is particularly interesting because the country maintains a rich and complex historical relationship with its Balkan neighbors.Its ancestor, the Ottoman Empire, deeply marked the region for more than five centuries.If the new Turkish Republic maintains Relatively limited relations with its former Ottoman provinces, the liberal opening of Turkish foreign policy by Turgut Özal from the 1980s marked a gradual return of Turkey to the region.