Comparing Turkey and Iran in Political Science and Historical Sociology: A Critical Review

Year 2015, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 1 - 30, 18.09.2015

Agah Hazır

Abstract

This article reviews existing comparative literature on Iran and Turkey in terms of their approaches, themes and findings. It extracts and critically analyses two dominant trends in this literature; Comparative Analyses of Cultures and Comparative Analyses of Modernizations. This paper argues that, these two common lines of approaching have serious limitations since they carry the traces of orientalist and ethnocentric assumptions. New literature on this topic however, offers new avenues of research, enabling the debate to avoid the above mentioned pitfalls. As a conclusion, this critical review points to certain dynamics to consider (over-politicization of the Iran-Turkey comparisons and the impact of international developments) in order to facilitate stronger comparative frameworks

Keywords

Turkey, Iran, Comparative Politics, Orientalism, Ethnocentrism

Siyaset Bilimi ve Tarihsel Sosyoloji İçerisinde Türkiye ve İran Karşılaştırmaları: Eleştirel Bir İnceleme

Abstract

Bu çalışmada Türkiye ve İran karşılaştırmaları literatürünün yaklaşım, tema ve bulgu yönünden bir eleştirel incelemesi yapılmaktadır. Çalışma, sözkonusu literatürde iki baskın çizgi tesbit etmiştir. Karşılaştırmalı Kültür Analizi ve Karşılaştırmalı Modernleşme Analizi diye isimlendirilen bu iki temel çizgi incelenmekte ve bu çizgilerin yoğun olarak oryantalist ve etnosentrik eğilimler taşıdığı değerlendirilmektedir. Farklı temalara yoğunlaşan yeni bir literatürün de varlığı gözlemlenmiş ve bu literatürün yukarıda söz konusu edilen hataları taşımadığı görülmüştür. Çalışma, sonucunda, yeni karşılaştırma çabalarının uluslararası boyutu ve literatürdeki aşırı siyasallaşmayı gözönüne alması gereğine işaret edilmiştir.  

Keywords

Türkiye, İran, Karşılaştırmalı Siyaset, Oryantalizm, Etnosentrizm

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