A Study on Brotherhood-perception of Turkey through the Oral Life Narratives of Korean War Veterans in Turkey


Cho H. (Yürütücü), Hwang S.

Diğer Ülkelerdeki Kamu Kurumları Tarafından Desteklenmiş Proje, 2022 - 2023

  • Proje Türü: Diğer Ülkelerdeki Kamu Kurumları Tarafından Desteklenmiş Proje
  • Başlama Tarihi: Şubat 2022
  • Bitiş Tarihi: Ocak 2023

Proje Özeti

This study is designed to explain Turkey’s process of forming a “brotherhood” with Korea and its full extent

through an oral life story interview with Turkish Korean War veterans. This is based on the view of Turkish

people’s understanding of friendship, which refers to Koreans as brothers, is based on the experience of

veterans who had participated in the Korean War. Actually, Korea's understanding of friendship toward Turkey

falls short of what the Turks show. This seems to be due to differences in the two countries' views on Turkey's

participation in the Korean War. While Turkey, which participated in the Korean War as an aid country, was

considering their actions as a proud embodiment of good, Korea, which shamefully had to seek help from many

countries because it lacked the strength to overcome the crisis by itself, might have wanted to unconsciously

avoid the fact that it received aid from other countries. As a result, it is a paradox that the one who gave the help

had greater goodwill than the one who received the help.

Now, Korea is emerging as a leading force in the world, and in line with that, the movement for globalization is

accelerating in the field of academic research. In this point of view, it is not a matter of choice, but of necessity,

to gather the memories of the veterans who were on the scene of the greatest tragedy in Korea's modern history.

The research team aims to integrate the memories of Turkish war veterans and reveal the reality of Korean

perceptions that were spread to the Turkish public through them with the research method called oral life story

interview. Specifically, a total of 20 or more oral interviews will be conducted twice a month during the oneyear

project period with the war veterans residing in Turkey. The aggregated data will be carefully analyzed and

published in one academic paper.

Oral life story is a type of narrative that brings a person's experience throughout his or her life back to memory

from the present point of view and forms a narrative based on its own rules, which contains the present

perception of the narrator’s experience in a total conscious level. Therefore, the oral story to be narrated by the

veterans will contain a combination of the micro-historical truths that will fill the gap between the macroconnections

of the Korean War, as well as the narrator’s overall perception of the Korean War and Korea. It is

speculated that Turkey's "understanding of brotherhood" of Korea was based on the memories and perceptions

of veterans shared with their families and neighbors, and broadly collecting and analyzing their oral life stories

about the Korean War is the best way for the Turks to understand Korea within it.

If this research is carried out as planned, it is expected to contribute to the expansion of the base of Korean

studies beyond just returning a favor. First of all, I believe that the success of this research will lead to similar

research on the countries that had participated in the Korean War. This is a way to enrich the assets of Korean

studies. The same thing holds true in discussing the value of the data itself. The memory of the war veterans,

who were outsiders and insiders in the middle of the Korean War, a major event in modern Korean history,

guarantees a balanced view inside and outside of the country to shed light on those days. Thus, the oral life

story, which will be presented through their memories, can be a source of high-value qualitative research in

studying the history, society, and culture of Korea at that time.

The study will also serve as a way to enhance the existing status of Korean studies in Turkey. By presenting the

oral life story interview method, which is unfamiliar to Turkish researchers, it will be an opportunity to

introduce a more advanced Korean research methodology to Turkey. This is more meaningful than simply

introducing Korean history and culture, and it is a way to contribute to the globalization of Korean studies on a

research methodology level. Besides, the study, which can only be conducted through informants and

researchers in Turkey, will be a precursor to unique research of Korean studies in Turkey, which will serve as

an impetus for Korean studies in each field to plan and carry out locally optimized studies.

Those young men who had to spend the most glamorous years of their lives on the battlefield for others are now

in their 90s. All of their memories may begin to fade and disappear in time, if not now. By meeting them before

it is too late to preserve and inform people of those memories, we must solidify our permanent emotional base

linking South Korea and Turkey.