‘Let’s Meet Where the Continents Meet’: Turkish Sports Diplomacy During the Late 1980s and Early 1990s

Türkiye’s use of sport diplomacy through engagement with the Olympic movement during the late Cold War offers a significant case for global histories of sports diplomacy. Focusing on the hosting of the IOC’s 92nd Session in İstanbul in 1987 and the groundwork for İstanbul’s bid for the 2000 Olympic Games, a sound analysis drawing on IOC archival materials, Turkish periodicals, and official records examines how Turkish political and sporting elites employed Olympic institutional engagement to enhance international legitimacy, project modernity, and reinforce Türkiye’s position within the western alliance system after the 1980 military coup. Situating Türkiye as an aspiring middle power, two diplomatic cases demonstrated how sport functioned as a mechanism of public diplomacy, elite networking, and symbolic international signaling despite the country’s limited sporting success and lack of experience hosting mega-events. The İstanbul IOC Session served both as a diplomatic performance and as a preparatory stage for Olympic candidacy, enabling Turkish actors to cultivate visibility and institutional credibility within the Olympic movement. By integrating Turkish sport history with scholarship on sport diplomacy and Olympic politics, the analysis contributes to debates on the diplomatic functions of Olympic engagement beyond traditional major powers and successful host nations.