THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FAMILIARITY OF ‘TURKIYE SCHOLARSHIPS’ STUDENTS WITH TURKEY AND ITS COUNTRY IMAGE AND PERSONALITY PERCEPTIONS

Globalism and developments in information technologies extended the scope of political communication. Political communication concept has become the main issue of the interaction between people and countries. As a result of that, nation branding concept has been included in the literature and has gained importance. One of the factors of nation branding is education. Turkiye Scholarships is a scholarship program financed by Republic of Turkey and provided to thousands of students. It is important to approach education upon nation branding, which is a part of political communication. In this study, the relation between the familiarity to Turkey of the students with Turkiye Scholarships in Istanbul and their perceptions about the image and personality of Turkey were examined. Measuring country image, one of the main components of nation branding, has become crucial. In this study, Dimensional Country Image Scale and Country Personality Scale were applied to the students with Turkiye Scholarships in Istanbul University and accordingly students’ perceptions on the image and personality of Turkey was measured. Here, the relation between students’ perceptions about the image and personality of Turkey and its language, culture, and people were presented. As a result, students having Turkish ethnic origin has proved to be more familiar with Turkey. The familiarity with Turkish culture, Turkish language, and Turkish people does not have an effect on the country image. It is observed that the students who are familiar with the country evaluate the country functionally and normatively, and thus their desire to stay in Turkey increases especially when they have spent more time in the country