The Ottoman image in the psychological construction of Bulgarian national identity and its effects on Bulgarian foreign policy: From the beginning of the Ottoman rule to the First World War

This study combines the sciences of International Relations and Psychology with a unique perspective, examining the general formation of a national identity and then its effects on the foreign policy of the relevant national state. Object Relations Theory, which is considered as the mainstream approach in Psychology and Constructivism from the science of International Relations, were combined under the name of Constructive Psychology and therefore was analyzed the national identity formation which is evaluated in the context of reflexive ontology. A case study was conducted to provide positive knowledge, in this context, the Bulgarian nation was examined in details by its known history from VIIth Century until the beginning of the XXth Century, how the nation constructed its national identity and by which psychological dynamics it was affected. Then the effects of the Bulgarian national identity on the foreign policy of the Bulgarian state have been analyzed. In this context, in the period from the establishment of the Bulgarian state to the First World War, the capacity of a reflexive national identity to direct material elements in Bulgarian foreign policy was analyzed. It has been determined that especially the historical interactions of the Bulgarian nation with the Ottomans provided the development of an aggressive psychology about Turks in the Bulgarian national identity. It is stated that this aggressive national psychology is extremely effective and important in terms of the Bulgarian state's ability to conduct its relations with the Ottoman / Turkish State from past to present. As a result, it has been observed that national identities can be constructed with certain psychological dynamics, they are not a priori (pre-given), and the parts outside their subjective structures are constantly constructed in the context of subject-object interactions and are open to change and transformation. National identities also affect political action according to their formed nature. In the context of the work's contributions to the literature, it was stated that different approaches besides mainstream theories may have weight in the International Relations discipline and that Political Psychology should take its deserved place in the discipline.