ABSTRACT
It can be said that in the 19th century of West, there is a kind of negative image about Turks which consists of some labels like barbaric, uncivilised, Eastern, lazy, despotic, dirty, and fanatic Muslim. The label of “dirty Turk” can be treated as a stigma because of its widespread nature. By thinking the scholars, publishings or experiences that Turkish elites have, it can be concluded that the Turkish elites were aware of this very label. And a stigmatized actor cannot remain indifferent towards his/her stigma in the Stigma Theory. The main research question is that: “What kind of reactions the Turkish elites showed towards the label of ‘Dirty Turk?’”. The question is examined in the school books of 1931-1947 by using the method of descriptive content analysis. Because the school books can be treated as an ideological material of dominant groups, there is a possibility to reach the ideas of Turkish elites about their stigma. And some components like “visibility”, “internalization”, “scapegoat”, “rejection and acceptance of the stigma” which exist in Stigma Theory inherently are detected as parallesims between Turkish politics and Theory. Lastly, it can be said that modernism, nation-state and biopolitics are important notions within these parallelisms.