HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE MODERN TURKISH «SOFT POWER» POLICY

Abstract

Over the last years the Republic of Turkey is more actively holding itself out as a regional leader. Using its advantageous geopolitical position at the junction of two civilizations as well as the imperial past Turkey is trying to expand its zone of influence by including the former Ottoman Empire territories into its foreign policy orbit by appealing to the common historical and cultural past and ideological values. One of the key strategies bringing on the country's attractive image creation which is aimed at the strengthening its influence on international relations is the Soft Power strategy. In this regard, it seems relevant to analyze the conceptual basis of Turkish "Soft Powefl' policy. Based on the analysis of the scientiic works of Russian and foreign researchers, as well as "Soft Power' theoretical constructions and factual material on the Turkish political leaders activities - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turgut Ozal and Recep Taip Erdogan, the author presented three key points of view regarding the reasons for its formation and historical background. The author concluded that despite the prevailing point of view among foreign historians according to which the concept of "soft power' was irst fully implemented after the AKP headed by R.T. Erdogan, the foundations of modern state policy based on the idea of the historical, geopolitical and cultural uniqueness of Turkey were laid by Ataturk. They were later formalized in the course on European integration by T. Ozal. The submitted paper has a scholarly importance since the historical analysis was not presented in the Russian academic literature taking into account the complex multilevel factors that inluenced the choice of the political line in Turkey. In addition, the study of the historical context of Turkish "Soft Power' politics is also interesting from the point of view of understanding and identifying the specifics of its current stage. The author introduced new factual data into scientiic circulation included a signiicant layer of previously unexplored and not translated into Russian sources.

Keywords

• «мягкая сила»