Türkiye-İran İlişkilerinde Yazılı Kaynakların Yeri (1979-2015)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main aim of the project is to explore the impacts of literature on the relationship between Turkey and Iran; the two most important neighboring countries in the Middle East. Additionally, the project also aims to analyze how this literature affects the relationship between the two countries. In order to conduct this research, a variety of publications that are in Turkish and Persian have been analyzed. The project particularly focused on the postgraduate theses, articles in peer-reviewed journals and books from national and international publication houses. The project aims to understand how the past literature in both countries represent each other’s cultural, social, and political lives. The aim of this project is also to address these representations correctly and to try to understand whether the publications of these countries are written objectively or manipulative in nature. Secondly, the findings of the first part have been evaluated in order to help in understanding how they can influence the relationship between the two countries. The primary rationale behind choosing this topic is to determine the obstacles that prevent Turkey and Iran from increasing their partnership. By doing this, this project will allow the two countries to enhance cooperation and establish a more solid relationship which will lead to a win-win situation rather than low-level interaction between societies, economies, and political actors. Having this question in mind, one of the most visible obstacles preventing such a beneficial vision between Turkey and Iran, is the negative perception among elites and peoples of the two countries. Focusing on such a problematic issue, this project will be dealing with the publications in these two countries which create and accelerate the distrust between Turkish and Iranian people. Although such negative publications date back to a much longer history, the project narrows the research period with the texts published between1979-2015. The project employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach to examine texts which are in the scope of this project. The project bears fruit by giving readers the picture of the representation of these two countries in their aforementioned publications. This picture allows us to understand better the obstacles that prevent further cooperation between Turkey and Iran. By bringing this picture into the light, this project will encourage academics and policy-makers to eliminate these obstacles. This will also be beneficial to both countries and force them to increase economic, political, and cultural relations. Keywords: Iran, Turkey, Discourse, Perception, Literature, Foreign Policy