Love, Money, or Fame? Determinants of Turkey’s Leader Visits

Abstract

High-level leader visits serve as credible signals in international relations, as they not only reveal the priorities of states in foreign relations but also convey messages to third parties. Observations of Turkey’s elevated diplomatic encounters with Iran, China, and Russia suggest a potential deviation from the West, while visits to Middle Eastern capitals are interpreted as evidence of Turkey’s Islamization. Beyond these individual cases, is it possible to identify a pattern of motivations that determine Turkey’s visit dynamics? By constructing a novel dataset from primary sources like official state documents, “Turkey Visits,” which spans the period from 1989 to 2022, this study aims to both characterize the distribution patterns of high-level leader visits and investigate the underlying factors that influence these patterns.