Paper abstract:

Iran-Central Asia relations divided Iranian elites into two categories. Those closer to the ideology of the Islamic Republic considered Central Asian states to be Muslim countries freed from the Soviet Union and ready to reunite with the Islamic World. In order to attract people from Central Asia to the Islamic Republic of Iran, this group wanted to increase religious propaganda in the region. On the other hand, another group of elites with nationalist tendencies saw the Central Asian

countries as part of the Greater Iran. These newly independent states were freed from the domination of Slavic culture and were ready to return to Iranian culture. However, after thirty years of independence, neither of these views has come true. The Central Asian states, whose identity building was their primary concern, have not given a significant place to their

Iranian/Islamic heritage in the process of their identity building.

According to constructivism, identity is a dynamic phenomenon. This means that the actors in international relations not only define their own identity and position in international relations but also construct the identities of other actors according to their own interests. We will try to identify the constructed image of Iran in Central Asian countries. Similar

to their Soviet counterparts, the new states of Central Asia use formal education to transmit their favorable narratives of history. As a result, history textbooks can be a suitable source for identifying the constructed image of Iran in these countries. As a result, we have studied history textbooks in Central Asia to know what image of Iran has been constructed by the governments. We use the thematic analysis method to find the answers to our questions.

The main question of this article is what image of Iran has been constructed by the governments of Central Asia?

The main hypothesis of this article is that Central Asian governments have deliberately and systematically tried to create a weak and unrealistic image of Iran by downplaying Iran's role in the region. However, one of the main reasons for this approach of the governments of the region is the concern about the spread of political Islam in the Islamic Republic. Finally, the result of this article is to get a better understanding of the regional government point of view towards Iran and to get to know the position of Iran in the countries of the region compared to other Central Asian neighbors.