Reconstruction of the ‘regional power’ role during the pandemic: Turkey’s COVID-19 diplomacy towards the balkans

ABSTRACT

The CoViD-19 pandemic has led to a resurgence of health diplomacy in international relations. Especially the great powers and middle powers have provided different kinds of assistance to countries in need and utilized health diplomacy as an opportunity to construct, reconstruct or consolidate their role in regional and global politics. Turkey was no exception with its assertive and ambitious health diplomacy, of which the Balkans were central. Crisis periods have proved critical junctures for Turkish decision-makers to assert their ambitions in the Balkans. This article examines Turkish diplomacy towards the Balkan countries during the CoViD-19 pandemic and examines how Turkish decision-makers reconstructed a ‘regional power’ identity. Informed by the constructivist theory, the paper critically investigates how Justice and Development Party tried to consolidate Turkey’s identity as a regional power in the Balkans. It delves into the following questions: What are the main reasons for Turkey’s coronavirus diplomacy towards the Balkans? How are Turkish decision-makers trying to reconstruct Turkey’s role as a regional power during the pandemic? What does the Turkish case tell us about the coronavirus diplomacy of the middle powers in general?.

KEYWORDS:

• Turkey
• Balkans
• coronavirus
• regional power
• health diplomacy

Acknowledgement

I would like to dedicate this article to the lovely memories of my grandmother Vasfiye Avcı Kılıç, my aunt Kıymet Kılıç, as well as our dear relatives Kısmet Akyol and Sabahattin Avcı.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For some studies comparing and contrasting different constructivist approaches, see Birgül Demirtaş-Coşkun, Turkey, Germany and the Wars in Yugoslavia: A Search for Reconstruction of State Identities, Berlin, Logos Verlag, 2006; Hans-Martin Jaeger, ‘Konstruktionsfehler des Konstruktivismus in den internationalen Beziehungen,’ Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen 3, no. 2 (1996): pp. 313–340; Ronen Palan, ‘A World of Their Making: An Evaluation of the Constructivist Critique in International Relations,’ Review of International Studies 26, no. 4 (October 2000): pp. 575–598; Maja Zehfuß, ‘Sprachlosigkeit schränkt ein Zur Bedeutung von Sprache in konstruktivistischen Theories,’ Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen 5, no. 1 (1998): pp. 109–137.

2. Checkel, ‘The Constructivist Turn in International Relations Theory,’ p. 346.

3. For an analysis of the changes during the AKP see Başak Alpan and Ahmet Erdi Öztürk, Turkey and the Balkans: Bringing the Europeanization/De-Europeanization Nexus into Question, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies Vol, 22, no: 1, 2022 (forthcoming).

4. A former Turkish ambassador states that Diyanet’s activities in foreign policy are not in line with Turkey’s secular characteristics. He argues that Diyanet’s policies have negative impacts, even in countries like Bosnia Herzegovina, in which the majority of the population consists of Muslims. He argues that in the face of increasing radical Islam in the Balkans, Diyanet’s policies are a burden for Turkey. Online communication with a retired Turkish ambassador 6, 22 September 2020.

5. AKP has been implementing health diplomacy as a soft power instrument for some time. For a review of health diplomacy in the world and in Turkey see Mehmet Fatih Aysan and M. Fehim Paluluoğlu, Sağlık Diplomasisi. In Dönüşen Diplomasi ve Türkiye. Aktörler, Alanlar, Araçlar, ed. Ali Resul Usul and İsmail Yaylacı. . 259–286. İstanbul: Küre, 2020.

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Birgül Demirtaş

Birgül Demirtaş is Professor of International Relations at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of Turkish-German University in İstanbul. She has received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin; M.A. in International Relations from Bilkent University, Ankara; B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Boğaziçi University, İstanbul. Her studies concentrate on Turkish foreign policy, Balkan Politics, German foreign policy, Turkish political parties and migration, city diplomacy and gender. She was the managing editor of the academic peer-review Journal of Uluslararası İlişkiler (International Relations, indexed in SSCI) between 2019-2021 and worked as the assistant editor of the journal between 2004-2018. She was also the assistant editor of the Perceptions journal between 2014-2018.