Harvard University's Distinguished Service Professor Nye is a political scientist who coined the concept "soft power" -- a kind of power that has the ability to attract rather than coerce, and that has been widely used by Turkish decision-makers to highlight the country's appeal as a modern Muslim democracy. Nye is despondent over Turkey's current direction and believes that cracking down on dissent has a negative impact on Turkey's most significant weapon: soft power.

Turkey currently is building 18 large Islamic religious centers around the world. The projects include a mosque in Tirana, Albania which will holdmore than 4,000 worshippers. Turkey will also build mosques in the UnitedStates, Russia and Kyrgyzstan.

Fuat Oktay, the president of Turkey's Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) remarked that AFAD is engaging in humanitarian aid by hosting Syrian refugees and that AFAD's accomplishments until now are beyond its mission. 

Organized by DanceMotion USA, a cultural diplomacy program run by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the "Unsettled" modern dance performance focuses on reconciliation of people. Dancers from Turkish, American and Armenian origins examine the nature of saying "sorry." 

The chairman of the country's leading think-tank, Jiro Hanyu from the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, believes that this negative trend is temporary, and underlined that they are trying to do everything in their power to increase mutual understanding between the Japanese and Muslim communities.

The Obama administration began its dealings with the Arab world on a hopeful note, as exemplified by the President's 2009 Cairo speech. Since then, despite increased U.S. public diplomacy efforts in the region, American policy has been perceived as hostile, or at least uncaring, toward Arabs.