The east and west perceptions in Turkey: Siverek example

This thesis was composed with a purpose to understand the east and west perception in Turkey. To serve this purpose, structured interwiviews were conducted with the officers who came from the western parts of Turkey. Through qualitative research techniques, it was aimed to reveal the individuals perception of east and west, who didn?t live in eastern parts before.Between March-April 2010, structured interviews were conducted with 31 people. A fixed list of questions used in interviews, when necessary, additional questions were directed to the interviewers. Interview questions consisted of three main sections which were about the thoughts of the interviewers previous lives ( before they came to Siverek) and subsequent lives ( after they had come to Siverek), and in general, to determine their east and west perception. Interviews were recorded on audio recording device and then converted to text. Each answer that the individuals gave to each question in the interview form was analyzed and then evaluated.During this study, as the researcher previously foreseed the perception of east and west were based on three main concepts: Culture, Ethnicity and Identity. Particularly, kinds of social identities expressing the cultural and ethnic identity were to be used as the east and west concepts.Key Words: East, West, Culture, Ethnicity, Identity, Siverek, Structured Interview