Despite leveling criticism at Israel for “excessive force,” the report could and should have been a major prize for Israel’s public diplomacy. How often, and particularly at a time of precious few PR gifts, does a UN-sponsored investigation uphold the legitimacy of Israel’s naval blockade and highlight the danger of Hamas from Gaza?

Turkey’s response to the Palmer Report is an attempt to clarify...its initial reluctance to side with protesters in Libya and Syria...Turkey views its conduct of foreign policy as a balance between diplomacy and hard power to pursue its interests, both moral and geopolitical.

It is true that the new ruling party initially had problems with credibility, due to a lack of proper public diplomacy at the international level, the core of the Israeli state, in alliance with a powerful lobby in the US, chose to undermine it, using every opportunity to describe the AK Party as a dangerous one, with a hidden political agenda.

As Turks returned Monday from a month of fasting and holidays over Ramadan, their government proudly declared the amount of aid they had gathered together to send to fellow Muslims in Somalia: More than $237 million. Turkey has made no secret of its desire to increase its influence in the Middle East and Muslim Africa.

It will seem as if Ankara is trying to obtain a result it was not able to within the U.N. system by using its military power whereas up until today it was trying to expand its sphere of influence through its soft power.

The restoration of mosques carried out by the Foundation of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet Vakfı) and the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) constitute solid ground for Davutoğlu’s public diplomacy in the Balkans.

A... historical soap opera based on the life of... Suleiman the Magnificent, it’s just one of more than 100 shows produced last year by Turkey’s booming TV-drama industry. The programs are becoming a wildly popular cultural phenomenon across the Middle East, bringing in their wake a renaissance in Turkey’s soft power and ushering in a low-key social revolution among the housewives of the Arab world.

Turkey’s attitude towards the Syrian crisis, as it has thus far unfolded, makes it clear that the years ahead will likely see a more liberal imprint on Turkish foreign policy. Not only Turkish rulers will give more attention to what Turkish public opinion think....