@article{article_572942, title={Where is the ’Middle East’? : West-centric knowledge-power perception towards the ‘East’}, journal={International Journal of Kurdish Studies}, volume={5}, pages={482–489}, year={2019}, DOI={10.21600/ijoks.572942}, author={Koç, Mehmet Akif}, keywords={West-centric,orientalism,Middle East,power,knowledge}, abstract={<p> <span style="font-family:’Times New Roman’, serif;font-size:16px;text-align:justify;">Historically, all cultural, geographical and political names, descriptions, definitions etc. clearly reflect intense categorization, political prejudice, cultural bias, and in general ‘otherization’ to a certain extent. Orientalism, as an influential political-cultural tradition, unambiguously reveals discriminating and arrogant Western stance regarding the rest of the world, particularly the ‘East’ and the Islamic world. This general trend, as a mainstream tradition, can easily be observed within the context of historical Western approach towards the using of the term ‘Middle East’. This paper aims at reviewing the term of ‘Middle East’ as an outcome of the Orientalist perspective both in cultural and political terms, and emphasizes the importance of using alternative ‘regionalist’ terms and concepts to describe the region’s contemporary realities. </span> <br /> </p>}, number={2}, publisher={Hasan KARACAN}