he Union of Marmara Municipalities (MBB) conducted a “Marmara Region Local Diplomacy Survey” for its member municipalities between December 2022 and January 2024 in order to reveal the activities carried out by the municipalities and different practices of the municipalities on foreign relations in the Marmara Region, which is its area of activity, to identify the institutional, legal and financial capacity, needs and problems in foreign relations and to develop policy recommendations including the steps that can be taken to overcome these problems.
All MBB member municipalities of different sizes in 11 provinces in the Marmara Region (Balıkesir, Bilecik, Bursa, Çanakkale, Edirne, İstanbul, Kırklareli, Kocaeli, Sakarya, Tekirdağ and Yalova) participated in the survey. The opinions of the municipal representatives were obtained through a questionnaire consisting of open-ended and optional questions conducted face-to-face, over the phone and via e-mail. The results of the research were evaluated under 8 main headings. In this context, in addition to the institutional structures of municipalities on foreign relations and the views of municipal staff on foreign relations, municipalities' membership in international networks, sister city relations, involvement in international projects, international cooperation agreements, participation in international events, and awareness and studies on the global agenda were examined within the scope of the research.
The results of the research and the related recommendations were analyzed in the study titled “Local Diplomacy Analysis of Marmara: Global Connections of Local Governments”. The report, which reveals the most comprehensive research by evaluating different dimensions of local diplomacy in Turkey, will guide local government representatives, researchers, experts, central government representatives and representatives of international organizations who are working on local diplomacy and who want to have information on this subject.
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