Turquía y España hacia el cambio en la percepción del "otro"

Abstract

In the mid nineteen seventies, Turks associated Spain mainly with the Real Madrid football team, bullfighting and Spanish music, and in general, viewed Spaniards as an authoritarian people who represented Christianity at its most intransigent. For their part, the Spanish viewed the Turks as people who spoke Arabic and in whose country polygamy was legal. During the nineteen eighties, Turkish trade was freed up and the teaching of the Spanish language and culture spread to universities other than the one in Ankara. In Spain, Turkish classes were run at the Autonomous University of Madrid and trade relations became more numerous, with an increasing number of people being sent to Turkey. The Turks began to feel closer to the Spanish, who had gone through similar processes during their history, and today, the two countries are sponsors of the Alliance of Civilisations and have an ever more positive view of each other in economic, political and social terms. In this text, students from the "Turkey, eastern gateway to Europe" course give their written perceptions of Turkey and her people.