Turkish press and the Turkish-Greek relations (1946-1955)

---

Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2017

Öğrenci: GÖZDE EMEN GÖKATALAY

Danışman: EBRU BOYAR

Özet:

This thesis examined the role of the Turkish press in the course of the Turkish-Greek relations from 1946 to 1955. These two neighbors initially achieved an exceptional and unprecedented partnership to counter a perceived threat from the Soviet Union and its satellite states in a hostile atmosphere of the emerging Cold War. Over the course of the period, however, the golden age of the Turkish-Greek relations was waned, and these two partners gradually turned against each other. Using the most circulated and influential daily newspapers of the period as well as the Turkish, British and American official documents, this thesis aimed to trace the role of the Turkish press in shaping the Turkish-Greek relations and influencing the slow but sure transition of Turkey and Greece from amity to enmity. Doing so, the press played several roles at different times with different degrees such as not only propagating and circulating the existing Greek policy of the successive Turkish governments and making the public support this policy but also challenging the official agenda and mobilizing the public perceptions. The Turkish press even led the government to reshape its policies of Greece on occasion. As this thesis argued, thanks to its intermediary position between the political elite and the public, the Turkish press took an active part in the formation of the Turkish-Greek relations throughout the period from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s.