In 2019, a workshop named 1st Workshop on Ottoman Studies: Ottoman Foreign Policy and Diplomacy from Karlowitz to Mudanya was held. This mentioned workshop was organized by the Department of History of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of Necmettin Erbakan University. In fact, an efficient Project had been carried out supported by the Metropolitan Municipality of Konya in cooperation with Necmettin Erbakan University.

In this context, 20 participants took part in the panel titled Problems of Turkish Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy from the Ottoman Period to the Present. All presented papers were published as a book by Graphicer Publishing under the name of ‘Ottoman Diplomacy in the New and Modern Ages’. This workshop attracted more than expected interest and a trend towards increasing our activities came to the front. Therefore, it was decided to turn these fruitful project into a regular international congress. The name of the Ottoman Studies Workshop has been changed into International Congress on Ottoman and Turkish Studies, and the scope as well the quality of these scientific meetings have been expanded.

Recently, studies on the history of diplomacy of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey have been increasing. Our previous work was about historical events of the Ottoman and Turkish diplomacy. This time, action has been taken for a study that deals with a person-centered history from the Ottoman Empire to the present, rather than event-centered.

Many individuals such as rulers, heads of states, foreign ministers, ambassadors and their tendencies/connections have been influential in the development of Turkish foreign policy and diplomacy from the Ottoman Empire to the present. However, until now, no study has been conducted that describes developments in Turkish diplomatic history with a person-centered and holistic approach. For this reason it is our aim to make a start in this context in October 2022.

The theme of the congress, which is the first of its kind, was determined as Important Figures Affecting Turkish Diplomacy from the Period of the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic. The congress will be held in partnership with Necmettin Erbakan University Department of History, Necmettin Erbakan University Department of International Relations, TİGA and KTO Karatay University in Konya.