The Impact of Air Strikes on Turkish Soft Power in the Kurdistan Region / Sulaymaniyah Province as an Example

In the last century, Turkey has made a significant effort in applying what is known as Soft Power, both internationally and regionally, especially during the ruling of The Justice and Development Party. Turkey has used certain means and resources of soft power, such as: geographical location, historical, religious, and touristic apects, political and cultural values, media and humanitarian aspect. Turkey has followed a number of ways to spread its soft power in Kurdistan region. The ways have been: delivering humanitarian support, opening Turkish schools, attracting tourists, providing further education opportunities for students from The Kurdistan region, exporting Turkish TV series and signing contracts with Kurdish TV channels. However, widening Turkey’s soft power, this policy has faced certain challenges, amongst which are the bombarding of some areas of Kurdistan region, the drone strikes, causing the death of civil people, and surpassing the borders of Kurdistan region by the Turkish army. All of these have had a negative impact on the impression of citizens of Sulaimani province about Turkey, causing Turkey’s soft power to be weak in the area. The main aim of this research is to answer the questions of: To what extent has Turkey been successful in using its soft power in Sulaimani province? To what extent have the airstrikes influenced Turkey’s soft power? The research has been conducted using the historical, descriptive, and analytical methods.