Unconventional Diplomatic Initiatives of Nascent Turkish Republic: The Karadeniz Expedition in 1926

ABSTRACT This study analyzes an unconventional diplomacy initiative by the nascent Republic of Turkey. Upon the proposal of the President Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk], the ship Karadeniz (Black Sea) was transformed into a public diplomacy cruiser in 1926, sailing to western ports to promote Turkey’s newly established republican regime. After a long decade of wars and diplomatic hardships, the Revolutionary cadre in Turkey turned to unconventional means to generate a new identity for the country. This study examines the motives behind this unconventional diplomacy attempt over the Karadeniz Floating Fair case, which was a foresighted public diplomacy project. Karadeniz was furnished with a variety of exhibition items ranging from the popular products of the country to the newly developing artistic forms and displayed them in the port cities of Europe and the USSR. It is argued that this unconventional diplomacy formulation ensued from certain restraints of conventional diplomacy related to the national image.