Country Report
Turkey describes foreign cultural and educational policy as a key factor in its ‚2023 Vision‘ to mark the centenary of the Turkish Republic. Back in 2017, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that Turkey would have to ‚exert strenuous efforts, study hard and sweat blood to obtain cultural power‘. In practice, this meant a stronger focus on Islam, a shift in emphasis from Europe to the Middle East and Central Asia and increasing state control of external cultural policy (ECP). Turkey has become more authoritarian in the process. The Turkish religious directorate Diyanet prepares the weekly sermons for 85,000 mosques in Turkey and roughly 2,000 mosques abroad.
