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| As you can see, much of Turkey's modern, wealthy cities are located in Western Turkey. |
Culture forms our perception of our
own personal history whereas histories refers to the many different outlooks on
history that exist among different peoples of different cultures. “When people
of different cultural backgrounds encounter one another, the differences among
them can be hidden barriers to communication” (Martin & Nakayama, p.127).
What shifting from history to histories does is it allows people to eliminate
those barriers and engage in more meaningful conversation with those of
different backgrounds.
Turkey serves as a gateway to the
Middle East and a large portion of Asia for much of the Western world. However,
a recent shift towards a more Islamic-influenced Turkey has threatened to close
Turkey off to much of the modernized world. A republic that dates back to the
post World War 1 era has undergone a process of de-modernization as of late in
an effort to more closely follow Islamic law. In order to understand this shift
it is important to have a better understanding of why exactly this shift has
been occurring.
Turkey was founded in 1923 as the
Republic of Turkey by the military general Ataturk. Turkey was founded as a
modernized state, with legitimate efforts to become a more European country and
less of a Middle Eastern country. To this day Ataturk is hailed as a visionary
in Turkey and it is almost unheard of for someone to speak out against the late
Ataturk. However, that is just what the Prime Minister of Turkey Erdogan has
done during his tenure in office. Erdogan has made a habit of attempting to
cover up the economic and social issues of Turkey as a nation by stressing
reforms based around making the country a more Islamic state. For the most part
his efforts have been applauded by the majority of Turks although their support
often more from a position being unaware of what is really going on.
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| Prime Minister Erdogan has been a controversial figure since his appointment in 2003. |
Erdogan’s reforms to make the
country more Islamic, less modern, and more religious have been somewhat
effective in covering up the larger issues. Although there are murmurs among
the wealthy, educated, elite that Erdogan’s reforms are hurting the country
more than they are helping; the majority is still in favor of the current prime
minister. Issues like unemployment, a large socioeconomic gap, and vast drops in
quality of living as you go from west to east in Turkey have been largely
downplayed under the current regime. As tensions rise internally among the
people of Turkey, support increases from the Muslim run states throughout the Middle East. A
solution to these issues is nowhere in sight but all we can hope for is that
everything ends peacefully and that conflict of any sort can be resolved civilly.
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| Ataturk: The founder of Turkey, the modern state |
The shift from history to
histories allows us to develop a richer understanding of intercultural
communication. It is able to do this by removing limitations that are placed on
encounters of those from diverse cultural backgrounds. When you look at
intercultural communication through the lens of histories as opposed to the
viewpoint you may have from the perspective of just one singular history, you
are able to understand where others may be coming from or what ideas others may
have about a certain event or maybe even individuals throughout history. After
all we are shaped by our history and if we can understand one another’s history
and think more on a larger scale we are able to more fully indulge in intercultural
communication.
Works Cited
Martin,
J. N. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (Sixth ed.). New York,
New York: McGraw-Hill.
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