Playing in the Discursive Backyard of the State: Turkish National Press Discourse towards the Anti-Jewish Incidents of 1934
Playing in the Discursive Backyard of the State: Turkish National Press Discourse towards the Anti-Jewish Incidents of 1934

Summary/Abstract: For the Jewish citizens of the Turkish Republic, the year 1934 was one of the defining moments in their status quo within Turkey. In June of that year, they became the target of a number of criminal acts in various towns and villages of Turkey's North Western region (Thrace). Turkish state condemned the events and affirmed that it would not allow anti-Semitism, which was rooted in Germany, surface within the borders of the young republic. However, notwithstanding the measures taken by the state, many Jews left their home towns and migrated to other towns of Turkey as well as to Palestine. The “1934 Events” were analysed from various perspectives. Many scholars provided differing explanations about the nature, causes and consequences of these events referring to their international, national and local dimensions. Their representation and reflections in the press, however, were not explored in depth. Drawing on the discourse analyses of Turkish national newspapers of the time, the article explores the similarities and nuances in the discourse of Turkish national press about the incidents that took place in 1934 as well as about the status of the Jewish community in the society. The article also highlights the relations between the state and the press and between the state and the minorities at the time by addressing the impact of the state’s dominant discourse about minorities on their representation in the Turkish national newspapers in the course of the “1934 Events”.

• Details
• Contents