An Analysis Of The Qestern Scholarly Discourse On Turkic Identity In Central Asia

Year 2001, Issue: 32, 127 - 166, 01.05.2001

Hayriye Kahveci

https://doi.org/10.1501/Intrel_0000000038

Abstract

An Analysis Of The Qestern Scholarly Discourse On Turkic Identity In Central Asia

Abstract

The research question is formulated for this study as: Did Western scholarly discourse published in the period between 1950s and 1990s on Turkic identity in Central Asia reflect the Cold War political environment? When there is a rivalry between two states or two groups of states, it can be argued that the study of the other side tends to be biased and created to legitimate the sustainment of the rivalry. When we look at the Cold War political environment, vvhich marked division of international relations into tvvo political poles East and the West , it is possible to observe this sort of a behavior between those parties as well. This paper relates to this tendency for ideology to affect knowledge. To examine this, the article focuses on the study of Turkic identity in Central Asia by the Western scholars.

Keywords

Discourse, Orientalism, Turkic identity, Central Asia, Basmacı Movement, Jadid Movement, Turkic Müslim Congress.