Ukraine Foreign Ministry’s senior advisory hails Turkish communication strategy during grain deal

ISTANBUL (AA) - A senior advisor to the Ukrainian foreign ministry on Friday praised Turkiye’s communication strategy during the Black Sea grain deal.

“It's very appropriate to hold this summit” in Türkiye, said Media and Communications Advisor George Tykhyi at the two-day Stratcom Summit. “Because we've admired actually some of the communications that the Turkish government has been making, especially on the grain deal.”

Last month, days before its scheduled expiration, the landmark grain deal signed in Istanbul in July by Türkiye, the UN, Russia and Ukraine, was extended for another 120 days, beginning Nov. 19.

“I enjoyed all of the previous panels, lots of really insightful and interesting thoughts that might be useful for me too,” said Tykhyi.

He said Ukraine had started preparations for a communication plan in the summer of 2021, before Russia’s war began earlier this year.

“We know before the small-scale examples when Russia attacked other countries. And they were not successful in getting the message out, or at least the Russian propaganda was so strong that they actually succeeded in muting those voices,” he said about Moscow's past communications plans and referenced the Russian war in Georgia in 2008 and its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014.

The two-day summit is being held for the second time in Istanbul. It is an international platform addressing global topics in the field of strategic communication.

Gathered under the theme of "Strategic Communication in the Age of Uncertainty," the platform will feature 52 speakers from more than 24 countries and an audience of over 3,000.