Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE LITERATURE AND CULTURE RESEARCHES, cilt.9, sa.1, ss.261-275, 2026 (TRDizin)
This article examines how Turkey is represented and discursively constructed in Turkey in My Heart, the memoir of Fernando Panesso Serna, Colombia’s first ambassador to Turkey. It aims to analyze how the perception of Turkey in Colombia has evolved from the 1890s to the present and to identify the thematic dimensions through which this transformation becomes visible. The study begins by examining the historical background of Turkey–Colombia relations and their development in the 21st century. The study adopts an idiographic approach and employs thematic analysis to explore how knowledge about Turkey was transmitted to Latin America through orientalist stereotypes. It argues that perceptions of Turkey were shaped not primarily through interstate relations, but through social interactions generated by successive waves of “turcos” migration. In this respect, the memoir is approached as a valuable source that reveals the transformation of bilateral relations through personal testimony. The findings reveal that Turkey was initially constructed not as a geographical or political reality, but as an ethnic and cultural representation shaped by the “turcos” discourse. In conclusion, since the 2000s, the transformation of bilateral relations between Colombia and Turkey has led to the gradual decline of orientalist and exotic perceptions of Turkey, giving way to more differentiated social and institutional frameworks and resulting in a more stable and coherent image of Turkey in Colombia.