Ottoman perception of Egyptian students

This research was carried out before the period described as "Arab Spring" in Egypt which is one of the highly effective countries of Middle East in political, economic and demographic structuring. The aim was to determine the Ottoman Turks image of Egyptian secondary school third grade students. Descriptive scanning model out of quantitative research procedures was used in the research and within this scope general scanning model was used. Secondary school third grade students who study in Egypt form the theoretical universe of the research. Convenience/accidental sampling method was preferred while choosing sample out of the universe of the research. Third grade students who studied in a village secondary school and had their last lessons in Egypt form the sample group. The scale which was developed by the researcher was used as data collection tool in the research. In the scale, there are 2 open cloze and 4 multiple-choice questions and 19 items to be answered according to the 3point Likert scale. The data obtained from Likert scale was analyzed with the SPSS 21 package programme. Analyses were made via Cronbach's Alpha, t-test, one-way ANOVA technique, Chi-squared test, frequency and percentage analysis. It was concluded in the research that the Ottoman perception of the aforementioned students were indecisive close to negative.


INTRODUCTION
The determination of people's perceptions towards one another is highly beneficial and necessary in improving state policies in international relations.For this reason and other similar reasons, international organizations such as UNESCO, UNICEF, OECD and WB conduct projects to analyze the instruction schedules of states with rhetoric like international understanding, cooperation and human rights (Pingel, 2004).IRCICA in Turkey is also doing mutual studies on this subject in cooperation with ALESCO (URL, 1).Turkey which lies at the juncture of three continents and at the center of hot spots such as Caucasia, Balkans and Middle East needs to extend and perpetuate this study and other similar studies in order to improve its own education system and to contribute to preserving peace in the region.It is especially important for Turkey to be interested in various regions and Middle East where instability is being increased and various dominance scenarios are being fictionalized.As a matter of fact, a vast gap was created in the region with the withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire from the Middle East.The region has always been in a continuous chaos since 1920 (Osmanoglu, 2012).
Due to the great importance of the region, USA has some strategies for this region.The Free Middle East Strategy declared on 06 November 2003 by USA President G. W. Bush in the article of USA former Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice named Transforming the Middle East which was published in The Washington Post on 7 August 2003 and which targeted 22 countries and the Great Middle East Reform Project declared by Vice President Dick Cheney in Davos show that major activities are being planned just near Turkey in 21th century (Evcioglu, 2005: 69).Concordantly, Turkey must try to ensure that the Middle East structuring, establishment is in line with its interests (Biyikli, 2006: 64-69).
Egypt which was chosen as subject for this research is one of the central countries of Middle East just like Turkey.It is one of the most crowded countries of the Middle East with its official population of 85 million (URL, 2) (unofficially estimated to be 1100 millions) and has one of the largest economies in the region.It is also the strongest country of Arab world (Memis, 2002: 218).It was seen that Egypt is not only one of the key countries of Arab world but also that of both Africa and Third World and that any changes to develop in Egypt which are politically, socially or economically significant can affect almost a whole geography in a short time Turkey must understand the development dynamics in the Middle East in order to improve the peace and security atmosphere in the region and to protect its own interests.The strongest data about what happens there must be obtained and necessary precautions must be taken.Today, school books of Arab world are commonly trying to place on people's subconscious that the period of Ottoman dominance in the region in between 1517-1882 is a vague period.There are a lot of negative evaluations about Turks in school books (Ceviz, 2004: 17).It is highly important to do comparative educational studies among countries with the aim of improving the international tolerance, determining such conditions scientifically and preventing them diplomatically.Together with this, comparative studies will also provide the extensive documents needed for providing sources for continuous program-developing studies (Demirel, 2006: 68) which are caused and necessitated by series of developments in the fields of science, technology and communication.
There are various studies both on Ottoman, Turkey and Turkish perceptions.Revelations of these studies are presented below.Akgun and Gundogar (2012) aimed to measure the Turkey and Turk perception in the Middle East in their study named Turkey Perception in the Middle East.Osmanoglu (2012) Kursun (2010) aimed to explain the changes that occurred in the historiography in Egypt and to give information on modern Arab historiography in Arab geography in his study named Historiography in International Relations as a Tool: A Critical Approach to the Changes in Egyptian School Books.Akyurek and Bilgic (2011) aimed to determine the Turkey and Turk perception of different societies in their report named Turkey and Turk perception in Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania).Yagbasan and Gulek (2010) aimed to reveal the effect of geopolitics, history and popular culture on perceptions and to describe the role of media in political relations between Turks and Arabs in their article named Changing Perception of Turkey in the Arab Media.Basheer (2009) aimed to analyze the Turkey image in the eyes of Arabs in his article named The Arabs and Modern Turkey: A Century of Changing Perceptions.It was concluded in the research that according to Islamic Arabs, Turkey was a country which turned its back on caliphate and religious responsibilities in the period between the two world wars and according to non-Islamic young Arab nationalists, it was a country which successfully actualized the modernization process.
Yilmaz and Osmanoglu (2011) aimed to determine the Turk perception in social studies school books in Egypt in their work named Turkish Image in Egyptian School Books. Koroglu (2008) aimed to narrate his experiences related to the journeys he made to Arab countries in his article named Turkey Perception of Arabs.

METHOD
There are studies on Turkey, Ottoman and Turk perception for various historic periods and geographical places in the literature.However, the studies were generally carried out with adults using documents and questionnaires.There are no studies in Arab counties on Ottoman perception of the abovementioned studentlevel.Based on this negation, the answer to the question "How is the Ottoman perception in the minds of the students who almost finished secondary school 3rd grade in Egypt?" was looked into in this study.
The study is established on the descriptive general scanning model.The model of the study is appropriate for studies aiming to describe a current or past condition as it is or as was.Thus, scanning is carried out on a universe forming of many elements, or on the whole universe or on the sample group taken from the universe or on the sample with the aim of making a general judgment on the universe (Karasar, 2006).

The universe and sample
Historic Ottoman topics that are included in Egyptian school books are presented in history units within the social studies program in the basic education.Social studies program starts at primary school 4th grade and goes on to finish at secondary school 3rd grade  (Osmanoglu, 2012).Graduate secondary school third grade students who are 15 or 16 years old and studied in Egypt before the period called "Arab Spring" form the universe of the research.In this context, the group which forms the universe took history lessons for 6 years within the scope of social studies program.Thus, they were assumed to qualify enough to answer the items and questions related to Ottomans in the questionnaire.Convenience/accidental sampling method was preferred while choosing sample out of the universe of the research.While selecting examples from population, convenience/incidental sampling method was preferred.The reasons for choosing this method are: Egypt is ruled with an iron fist, the government takes strict security measures, foreigners are not easily allowed to work in schools, and it is foreseen that it could take at least one year for an official permission request process which is not sure to be responded to.The best way to conduct this study was to convince a teacher of social sciences.Only one among teachers who are extremely afraid of being punished by the government was convinced.Students were reached via this teacher.The example could not be more extended in order to ensure the safety of the researcher, teacher and students.In the aforementioned sampling method, the researcher got his example starting from the most reachable respondent till he got the group he needed (Cohen and Manion, 1989;Buyukozturk et al., 2008).Third grade students who studied in a village secondary school and had their last lessons in the 2007-2008 school year in Egypt form the sample group.This village is approximately 60-70 km far from Cairo.The villagers are occupied with stockbreeding, agriculture, trade and politics.In addition, there are officers just like university lecturers who are assigned in Geza to travel from the village to Cairo and vice versa every day.In this village, there is no child who is not sent to school or kept out of education.The population of the village is nearly 15.000.
23 of the students are males and 19 of them are females.As the educational status of parents of students is one of the variables of the study, frequency and percentage distribution of the students according to this variable are illustrated in Table 1: According to Table 1, 13 of students' mothers (%31) are uneducated, 4 of them (9.5%) went to primary school, 7 of them (16.7%)went to secondary school, 12 of them (28,6%) went to high school and 5 of them (11.9%) were educated in faculties and 1 of them (2.4%) received postgraduate education.1 of students' fathers (2,4%) is uneducated, 6 of them (14.3%)went to primary school, 7 of them (16.7%)went to secondary school, 11 of them (26.2%)went to high school or have a bachelor's degree and 6 of them (14.3%) received postgraduate education.Another variable of the study is the 23rd question as to whether they have read a story or watched a movie related to the Ottoman Empire.Accordingly, the frequency and percentage distribution of students are presented in Table 2.
According to Table 2, 14 of the students (33.3%) read a story or watched a movie related to the Ottoman Empire, and 28 of them (66,7%) did not partake in such an activity.
Another variable is the 24th question as to whether they have participated in a school trip which was organized to study a historical place related to the Ottoman Empire.Accordingly, the frequency and percentage distribution of students are presented in Table 3.
According to Table 3, 19 of the students (45.2%) participated in a school trip which was organized to study a historic place related to the Ottoman Empire and 23 of them (54.8%) have not done so.

Data collection tool
The scale developed by the researcher was used with the aim of determining the perceptions of students related to Ottomans.Before creating the scale, history units in Egyptian Social Studies books were analyzed and relevant literature was scanned.Accordingly, an item pool of 42 items was created.The items were presented to two field experts and the number of items was reduced to 28 in line with the feedbacks and necessary reorganizations were made.The scale was formed of two parts.In the first part, there are 3 questions about the gender of the students and educational status of parents of the students.In the second part, there are 2 open -closed and 3 multiple-choice questions and 19 items to be answered according to the 3-point Likert scale.There are 11 positive and 8 negative items in the Likert scale.The choices of the scale are sorted as "I Agree (1), Neutral (2), I Disagree (3)".While the data was being inserted into the SPSS 21 package programme, necessary conversions were made in the negative questions.Cronbach Alpha test which is known as internal consistency calculation was applied in order to calculate the reliability of measurements obtained from 19 items in the scale after all the data was obtained.Cronbach Alpha coefficient was found to be .801.The internal consistency and homogeneity of the scale or factor increase as the obtained coefficient get closer to 1.The related score shows that the scale used in the questionnaire is both reliable and valid statistically (Brownlow, 2004).In this case, the scale used in the questionnaire is statistically reliable and valid.

DATA ANALYSIS METHOD
The data obtained from Likert scale was analyzed with the SPSS 21 package programme.Frequency and percentage distribution of the personal information that are in the first section of the scale were found in the analysis of data.Chi-Squared test was used in order to test the independency of the answers of each other which were given according to the variables of watching a movie or reading a story related to the Ottoman history and participating in a school trip which was organized to analyze a historic place related to Ottoman Empire.Answers given to open-closed and other multiple-choice questions were analyzed by grounding on frequency and percentage distribution.
The method used to evaluate the point of view about Ottoman Empire is generally as follows: The lowest point that can be taken in the scale is 19 and the highest point is 57.The lowest average that can be produced in the scale is 1 and the highest average is 3 as it is a 3-point Likert type scale.Each interval of each unit was calculated to be 100 points and it was accepted that the interval between 1 and 3 was 200 units.The scale was divided into 3 equal intervals.Accordingly, the rubric of the Likert scale is illustrated in Table 4.
According to Table 4, if the average of the points a student makes on Likert scale is between 1.0-1.67, the Ottoman perception is positive; if between 1,68-2,34, it is neutral (indecisive) and if between 2,35-.3.0 it is negative.In order to make a general evaluation, averages of each scale will be added together and the outcome will be divided by 42 which is the number of students.Thus, it will be possible to make a comment about the general attitude.

FINDINGS
Accordingly, the frequency and percentage distribution of answers the participants gave to the question "What is the first thing that comes to your mind when someone says Ottoman Empire?" are presented in Table 5.
According to Table 5, the expression Ottoman Empire associates Turks for 31 of the students (73.8%), colony for 6 of them (14.3%),force for 4 of them (9.5%) and war for 1 of them (2.4%).This item and item 24 show the visit with the aim of examining a historical place in Ottoman Empire.
According to this, all of those who have read a story or watched a movie related to Ottomans associate the notion of Ottoman with Turks; 17 of those who have not read a book or watched a movie (60.7; this Item and the Item 24 show the visit with the aim to examine a historical place about Ottoman Empire) also associate it with The frequency and percentage distribution of students according to whether they agree with the items that are in the 3-point Likert scale and between the 2nd and 22nd items of the questionnaire are presented in Table 6.
According to Table 6, 8 of the students (19%) stated for the 2nd item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire ruled justly, 28 of them (66.7%)stated that they did not think so and 6 of them (14.3%)stated that they were neutral.9 of the students (21.4%) stated for the 3rd item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire protected the world of Islam from outer threats, 27 of them (64.3%)stated that they did not think so and 6 of them (14.3%)stated that they were neutral, 10 of the students (23.8%) stated for the 4th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire took the Islamic culture to top, 25 of them (59.5%)stated that they did not think so and 7 of them (16.7%)stated that they were neutral, 9 of the students (21.4%) stated for the 5th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire was imperialist, 27 of them (64.3%)stated that they did not think so and 6 of them (14.3%)stated that they were neutral.There is a significant relation between this item and the 23rd item (X2= 7,917; p=0,21*).Those who have read a story or watched a film about Ottoman Empire do not consider Ottoman Empire as colonist.In addition, there is a statistically significant relation between this item and the 24th item (X2= 9,632; p=0,008**).Those who have watched a movie or read a book related to the Ottoman Empire and those who have had the chance to participate in a school trip related to Ottoman Empire do not think that the Ottoman Empire is imperialist.7 of the students (16.7%) stated for the 6th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire misbehaved to Arab peoples, 30 of them (71.4%)stated that they did not think so and 5 of them (11.9%)stated that they were neutral.There is a statistically significant relation between this item and the 25th item (x2= 6,785; p=0,034*).Those who have visited a historic place related to the Ottoman Empire to study the place think that Ottoman Empire did not misbehaved to Arab peoples.
12 of the students (28.6%) stated for the 7th item of the questionnaire that if Ottoman Empire were to rule Islamic countries today, they would solve problems such as Arab-Israeli problem in the Middle East, 24 of them (57.1%)stated that they did not think so and 6 of them (14.3%)stated that they were neutral.According to the Chi-Squared test, there is a statistically significant relation between this item and the 23rd item (x2= 7,125; p=0,033*).Those who have watched a movie or read a book related to the Ottoman Empire think that even if Ottoman Empire existed today, it would not be able to solve the problems of today.9 of the students (21.4%) stated for the 8th item of the questionnaire that if Ottoman Empire existed today, it would be an intimidating power for other countries to attack Arab countries, 20 of them (47.6%)stated that they did not think so and 13 of them (31.0%)stated that they were neutral.
8 of the students (19%) stated for the 9th item of the questionnaire that Ottoman rulers were interested in the problems of Egyptian villagers,32 of them (76.2%)stated that they did not think so and 2 of them stated that they were neutral.There is a statistically critical relation between this item and the 23rd item (x2= 8,953; p=0,004**).Those who have watched a movie or read a book related to the Ottoman Empire think that the Ottoman rulers were not interested in the problems of Egyptian villagers.
10 of the students (23.8%) stated for the 10th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the ignorance spread during the period of Ottoman Empire, 21 of them (50%) stated that they did not think so and 11 of them (26.2%)stated that they were neutral.
15 of the students (35.7%) stated for the 11th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire contributed to the Islamic culture, 20 of them (47.6%)stated that they did not think so and 7 of them (16.7%)stated that they were neutral.5 of the students (11.9%) stated for the 12th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire was developed in every field, 18 of them (42.9%)stated that they did not think so and 19 of them (45.2%)stated that they were neutral.There is a statistically significant relation between this item and the 24th item (x2= 8,303; p=0,012*).Those who have visited a historic place related to the Ottoman Empire to study the place were either neutral or stated that they thought that the Ottoman Empire was not developed in every field.
13 of the students (31%) stated for the 13th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire protected the sacred spaces of Islam, 20 of them (47.6%)stated that they did not think so and 9 of them (21.4%)stated that they were neutral.There is a statistically critical relation between this item and the 24th item (x2= 13,281; p=0,001**).Those who have visited a historic place related to the Ottoman Empire to study the place mostly stated that the Ottoman Empire did not protect the sacred placed of Islam.
16 of the students (38.1%) stated for the 14th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire colonized Egypt, 22 of them (52.4%)stated that they did not think so and 4 of them (9.5%) stated that they were neutral.There is a statistically significant relation between this item and the 23rd item (x2= 8,966; p=0,014*).Those who have watched a movie or read a book related to the Ottoman Empire mostly stated the Ottoman Empire did not colonize Egypt.
11 of the students (26.2%) stated for the 15th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire could be characterized with underdevelopment, 20 of them (47.6%)stated that they did not think so and 11 of them (26.2%)stated that they were neutral.
5 of the students (11.9%) stated for the 16th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the cause of the innovations was not Ottoman Empire but English and French invasions, 29 of them (69%) stated that they did not think so and 8 of them (19%) stated that they were neutral.
12 of the students (28.5%) stated for the 17th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire did not offer any innovations for the Arab world, 21 of them (50%) stated that they did not think so and 9 of them (21.4%)stated that they were neutral.
15 of the students (35.7%) stated for the 18th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire protected Arab soil from the Europeans, 7 of them (16.7%)stated that they did not think so and 20 of them (47.6%)stated that they were neutral.
14 of the students (33.3%) stated for the 19th item of the questionnaire that they thought that the Ottoman Empire protected Arab soil from Portuguese pervasion, 13 of them (31%) stated that they did not think so and 15 of them (35.7%)stated that they were neutral.
-17 of the students (40.5%) stated for the 20th item of the questionnaire that they thought that Sultan II.Abdulhamid Han stood against the planned colonization activities in Arab soil, 7 of them (16.7%)stated that they did not think so and 18 of them (42.9%)stated that they were neutral.There is a statistically significant relation between this item and the 23rd item (x2= 7,025; p=0,027*).Those who have watched a movie or read a book related to the Ottoman Empire mostly stated that they thought that II.Abdulhamid Han stood against the planned colonization activities in Arab soil.
7 of the students (16.7%) stated for the 21st item of the questionnaire that they thought that the history lessons had a positive effect about Ottoman Empire, 4 of them (9.5%) stated that they thought that they had a negative effect, 30 of them(71.4%)stated that they thought that they had both positive and negative effects and 1 of them (2.4%) stated that they had no effect.
The 22nd question which is one of the open closed questions is "Which current country do you think is most associated to Ottoman Empire?"The answers given to this question are illustrated in Table 7.
According to Table 7, 19 of the students (45.24%) associated the Ottoman Empire to America, 13 of them (30.95%)associated it to Turkey, 6 of them (14.29%)associated it to England, 1 of them (2.38%) associated it to Egypt, 1 of them (2.38%) associated it to Russia and France and 1 of them (2.38%) left the question blank.After the students marked the country they associated, they were asked to explain the reason.The answers were subjected to content analysis.Accordingly, the coding status of the students according to their associations is presented in Table 8.
According to Table 8, the students associated the Ottoman Empire most to America. 5 of the students who associated it to America (26.32%) stated that the similar aspect was the invader characteristic, 4 of them (4.25%) stated that it was tyranny, 4 of them (4.25%) stated that it was colonialism, 2 of them (10.53%)stated that it was the state of being powerful and dominant.4 of them (4.25%) "England, Because it has dominance over countries and it colonizes them.""England.Because their regimes are tyrannizer and dictator.""England.Because they sometimes use their politics to beautify countries.""England.Because they spread the lust."England.Because they sometimes use their politics to beautify countries." As a result of the expressions above, it is understood that the students associate the Ottoman Empire to England because of its colonialist aspect and its contribution to the civilization.
The students fourthly associated the Ottoman Empire to Egypt.The only student to associate it to Egypt (100%) explained this resemblance with the fact that both states were dictators.
The sentence of the student is presented below: "Egypt.Because no matter how free it seems, the rulers always have the authority."As a result of the expression above, it is understood that the student associates the Ottoman Empire to Egypt with its so-called democratic characteristic but originary dictatorship.
The students again fourthly associated the Ottoman Empire to France.The only student to associate it to France (100%) explained this resemblance with the love of science of both states.
The sentence of the student is presented below: "France.Because they have spread science and education and respected to the ulema."As a result of the expression above, it is understood that the student associates the Ottoman Empire to France with regards to its contributions on science.
The students again fourthly associated the Ottoman Empire to Russia.The only student to associate it to Russia (100%) explained this resemblance with the fact that both states keep other countries under their dominance.
The sentence of the student is presented below: "Another country.Because Russia and the Soviet Union were formed of several countries and they were focused on expanding with mercenaries." As a result of the expression above, it is understood that the student associates the Ottoman Empire to Russia with regards to its federative structure and the fact that it expanded its soils by battling.
Frequency and percentage results are presented in the sample section as the 23rd and 24th questions of the questionnaire contained definitive information on the sample of the research.It was also analyzed whether there was a relationship between the states of the answer sheets being positive, neutral or negative with the answers given to these questions.By this, the aim was to put forward an idea on how the points of view of the students were affected by their state of reading a book or watching a movie related to the Ottoman Empire.It was understood that only two of 14 students who had done the aforementioned activity (14.3%) had a positive opinion, 64,3 percent of them were neutral and 3 of them (21.4%) had a negative opinion.Only 2 of 28 students (10.5%) who participated in a school trip to a historic place related to the Otto"man Empire which was tested with the 24th question have positive thoughts, 12 of them (63.2%) have neutral thoughts and 5 of them (26.3%) have negative thoughts.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The results of the research are presented in point-form below.
1.The genders and the parental education status of students do not have any effects on the Ottoman perception.2. As the Likert scale average of 42 students is 2.26, the students generally do not have a positive or negative attitude related to the Ottoman Empire and they have close to negative neutral (indecisive) attitudes.3. Whether the students watched a movie, read a story or participated in a school trip to a historic place related to the Ottomans do not have any positive or negative effects on the students.It may have caused the negative effect to turn into indecisive situation.
Positive points of views and negative points of view related to the Ottoman Empire are presented in separate titles below: The topics which are seen positive by most are as follows: 1.At the time of the Ottoman Empire, ignorance did not spread.2. The Ottoman Empire did not colonize Egypt.Watching a movie or reading a book related to the Ottoman Empire and having the chance to participate in a school trip related to the Ottoman Empire led them to think that the Ottoman Empire was not colonist.In these circumstances, it is understood that the movies watched and the books read were not fictionalized to the detriment of the Ottoman Empire.3. The Ottoman Empire cannot be characterized with underdevelopment.1.The Ottoman Empire protected Arab territory.Visitation to a historic place to study the place related to the Ottoman Empire contributes to this perception.2. They did not misbehave to Arab peoples.
The topics which are seen negative by most are as follows: 1.The Ottoman Empire was not governed in justice.2. It did not protect the world of Islam.3. It did not take the Islamic culture to the top.4. If it were existent today, it would not be able to solve the problems of the Middle East.Those who have watched a movie or read a book related to the Ottoman Empire think that even if Ottoman Empire existed today, it would not be able to solve the problems of today.This can be explained with the inability to carry the Ottoman Empire that is described in the stories read or movies watched to the world of present day in minds. 5.They were not interested in the problems of the Egyptian villagers.Those who have watched a movie or read a book related to the Ottoman Empire think that the Ottoman rulers were not interested in the problems of Egyptian villagers.This can be explained with the depictions of Egyptian villagers in misery in related stories or movies.6.The Ottoman Empire was not developed in every field.Visitation to a historic place to study the place related to the Ottoman Empire caused this perception.This can be explained with the fact that the works in the visited places are mostly historic places such as mosques, castles and palaces.The facts that these structures are neglected and ruins can cause this.7. It did not protect the sacred spaces.Visitation to a historic place to study the place related to the Ottoman Empire is one of the important reasons of this perception.It can be explained with the inability of students to imagine these works elsewhere as they have seen the works related to the Ottoman Empire in Egypt.8.The Ottoman Empire did not offer any advancement to the Arab world.

SUGGESTIONS
In this research, different results were produced than the studies mentioned below.While it is concluded in this research that the students were neutral close to negative (indecisive), the researches of the Bilge Adamlar Strategic Research Center (2011) was concluded with the following results: Egypt is the most sympathy-bearing country for Turks in the Middle East, Turkey is seen as a model country, according to Uysal (2011) there is a socially positive Turkey and Turk perception in Egypt, according to Yagbasan and Gulek (2010) positive image is dominant for Turkey, according to Basheer (2009) Turkey gained a positive image especially after 2006.
It was seen that there were some differences between the results of this research and the results of the below mentioned researches.Accordingly; while it is revealed in this research that the students have a neutral close to negative (indecisive) perception about the Ottomans, it was determined in the research of the Bilge Adamlar Strategic Research Center (2011) that Turkey was seen as a model country and the fact that Egypt was the most sympathy-bearing country for the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East was emphasized.However, in some researches, it was emphasized that there was a socially positive Turkey and Turks perception in Egypt (Uysal, 2011;Yagbasan and Gulek, 2010) and it was seen that Turkey gained a positive perception especially after Yılmaz 829 2006 (Basheer, 2009).In this case, the question to be answered or explained is that: Why do the 15-year-old students who are a part of the same society and form the sample of this research do not have the same positive perception about Turks while adult Egyptians have a positive Turk perception?The answer of this question lies in the following question: While there are no expressions in favor of the Ottomans in the school books there are completely opposite expressions, why do the students have an indecisive attitude towards the Ottomans and not have a negative perception despite all these ideological and nationalist discourses?As a matter of fact, Osmanoglu (2012) concluded in his research that there are no positive expressions related to the Ottomans in the social studies school books of Egyptian secondary school first and second graders.It was stated in the school books that Egypt was underdeveloped in every field including the civilization, that the reason for this condition of underdevelopment was the existence of the Ottoman Empire in Egypt, that the Ottoman soldiers plundered the Egyptian people, that the Egyptians in the Ottoman army were subjected to negative discrimination because of their nationalities, that the Egyptian people were fed up with tyrannies and ready to explode and that they finally revolted (Osmanoglu, 2012, p.394).Similarly, Yilmaz and Osmanoglu (2009) concluded that the sole reason behind the social, political, economic, health and religious, military underdevelopments in Egypt was reflected to be the management of the Ottoman Empire in secondary school third grade social studies school books.
The students do not think negatively of Turks as they are taught in school books.Because their surroundings think positively of Turks.The students are stuck between the contradiction between the school books and their surroundings.The students begin to make sense of the world with their free views and get partly rid of the ideological pressure in the school books once they grow older and become an adult of the society.In this case, the political, economic and social conditions they themselves live in change their perceptions and shape them.
Despite all the national and ideological discourses in the school books, the students are indecisive about the Ottomans as a result of the positive perceptions of their surroundings related to Turkey and Turks and of the facts that they see the especially architectural pieces the Ottomans left in Egypt and they still use Turkish words like "dad, pasha, effendi" remaining from the Ottomans.
The historic and geographical togetherness of Turkey (Yagbasan and Gulek, 2010), political developments such as Turkey's rejection of America's demand to enter into North Iraq through Turkey in 2006 as Basheer stated (2009) and anti-Israeli attitudes seen in Mavi Marmara and Davos and maybe the most important, the fact that they believe in the same religion gain Turkey positive perception in the eyes of the Arab peoples.
aimed to comparatively analyze the student books and instruction schedules of social studies lesson which was given in sixth and seventh gradeseventh grade is the equal of 1st grade of secondary school in Egypt, in Turkey and in Egypt in 2007-2008 school year in his dissertation named Comparison of Social Studies Instruction Schedules and School Books in Turkish Republic and Egyptian Republic.

Table 1 .
Frequency and percentage distribution of students according to the educational status of their parents.

Table 2 .
Frequency and percentage distribution of students according to their state of reading a story or watching a movie.

Table 3 .
Frequency and percentage distribution of students according to their state of touring a historic place related to the Ottoman Empire.

Table 5 .
Frequency and percentage distribution of students according to the Ottoman Empire image.

Table 6 .
Whether the students agree.

Table 7 .
Frequency and percentage distribution of students according to the countries they associated to Ottoman Empire.