A Diplomacy Platform Bringing the World’s Youth Together
Bringing Today’s Leaderswith Tomorrow’sLeaders
The Youth Diplomacy Association brings young people interested in diplomacy and international relations together through high-quality initiatives. While supporting their academic and professional development, it aims to unite young people from around the world on common ground and to build the foundations of youth diplomacy.
Our Vision
To become a pioneering platform that brings the world’s youth together on common ground, represents the conscience of young people worldwide on global issues, and builds the foundations of youth diplomacy.
Our Mission
To bring high school and university students interested in diplomacy and international relations together through high-quality initiatives. By connecting today’s leaders with tomorrow’s leaders, we aim to contribute to the academic, professional, and personal development of young people.
To build bridges between young people and the institutions and organisations representing Türkiye abroad, while creating opportunities for young people from different countries to come together and undertake collaborative initiatives.
What Is GDD?
The Youth Diplomacy Association (GDD) is a youth platform that brings together high school and university students interested in diplomacy and international relations, supporting their academic and professional development. Through high-quality initiatives, academic gatherings, institutional visits, and national and international programmes, it helps young people expand their knowledge and experience in the field of diplomacy. By bringing today’s leaders together with tomorrow’s leaders, GDD enables young people to engage directly with experts in the field.
Our Objectives
Our National Objectives
High-Quality Initiatives
To bring high school and university students across Türkiye who are interested in diplomacy together through academic, cultural, and practical activities.
Professional Guidance
To provide guidance to young people pursuing careers in diplomacy, international relations, and the social sciences, and to connect them with experts in these fields.
Institutional Awareness
To introduce young people to the activities, opportunities, and career pathways offered by institutions and organisations representing Türkiye abroad.
Diplomacy Clubs
To take the lead in promoting a Türkiye-centred approach to diplomacy clubs in high schools and universities.
Our International Objectives
Global Youth Network
To take the lead in establishing an international youth network that brings young people together worldwide and fosters lasting relationships and sustainable cooperation.
Building Youth Diplomacy
To develop an approach to youth diplomacy grounded in dialogue, collaborative idea generation, and project development by bringing young people together around shared interests.
Promoting Social Entrepreneurship
To take the lead in promoting Türkiye’s successful models of social clubs and social entrepreneurship worldwide, particularly across the regions with which Türkiye shares historical, cultural, and social ties.
Our Activities
Our forums, which bring young people together in diplomacy and international relations, and the Social Sciences Achievement Scholarship.
Our Principles
Quality Over Quantity
We measure growth not merely by the number of people we reach, but by the quality of our work, the impact it creates, and its lasting value.
Youth Initiative
We see young people not merely as participants in activities, but as active contributors who generate ideas, assume responsibility, and shape processes.
Dialogue and Mutual Understanding
We value bringing together different perspectives, cultures, and experiences, placing mutual understanding and constructive dialogue at the heart of our work.
Continuity and Sustainability
We strive to go beyond one-off events by building lasting relationships, ongoing projects, and sustainable structures.
Dear Friends,
As a group of high school students who founded the Youth Diplomacy Association, we decided to create a youth movement that brings today’s leaders together with tomorrow’s leaders, in which young people prepare for the future with their own hands and are represented by their own will, without intermediaries. We set out to build an organisation in which young people have a say at every stage, from planning to implementation and from the front of the stage to behind the scenes; one in which they are not left in the shadows, pushed into the background or treated as a means of publicity. This idea came to life in the Youth Diplomacy Association.
In Türkiye, particularly in recent years, we have seen considerable interest in diplomacy and international relations, above all among high school and university students. Yet this valuable interest cannot always be channelled into high-quality, in-depth work. As the Youth Diplomacy Association, we aim to connect this interest with high-quality initiatives and to place existing activities on a stronger and more meaningful footing.
Selman Bilir
President of the Youth Diplomacy Association