BALKANLARIN İSLAMLAŞMASINDAKİ HOCA AHMED YESEVİ ETKİSİNE KAMU DİPLOMASİSİ PERSPEKTİFİNDEN BAKMAK
Although only half a century passed since the concept of public diplomacy is started to be used in the literature, it is known that the activities expressed with this concept have been used since ancient times. The main objective of the public diplomacy is to influence other communities. This objective is realized by introducing your own values that you possess to the opposite party through all kinds of legitimate channels. When history is considered in this sense, it may be seen that it is possible to establish a connection between Hodja Ahmed Yesevi’s activities and modern public diplomacy. Hodja Ahmed Yesevi, who was a quite significant character in Turkish-Islamic World, was assigned to raise tens of thousands of novices/dervishes and to guide them on Turkistan-based line of east-west, north-east. One of the places that these dervishes, who predominantly went towards west, was Balkan lands. In this era, when Balkan geography was not honored with Islam yet, aforementioned dervishes carried Ahmed Yesevi doctrine to these lands and conduced to introducing the region to Turkish-Islamic culture. On these lands, dervishes established lodges for themselves and communed directly with the society through the bridges and mills they built and through similar activities and serve them. Dervishes, who were raised within this tradition Sarı Saltık being in the first place, set an example to the communities living in these lands with their exemplary behaviors and played a fundamental role in expansion of Islamism. In this document, the activities of the dervishes, who succeeded from Yesevi tradition, were discussed within the perspective, within the context of Islamization of the Balkans will be discussed from the perspective of public diplomacy concept. Similarities and differences between public diplomacy applications, which is a modern concept however, whose application examples may be found since ancient times, and activities of the dervishes will be indicated here. Besides, there is another objective of this study that is to discuss Hodja Yesevi, who is a moral we own, within the context of international relations concepts. Generally, it is not possible to encounter Eastern names frequently in the texts regarding international relations discipline. Consequently, the objective of this study is to humbly contribute to the deficiency in this field.

Keywords
Public Diplomacy, Hodja Ahmed Yesevi, Dervishes, Balkans.