Turkish press and the early cold war (1945-1950)

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

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

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2016

Öğrenci: SEMİH GÖKATALAY

Danışman: EBRU BOYAR

Özet:

This thesis investigated how Turkish press’ perceptions of the early Cold War were shaped from 1945 to 1950 by utilizing newspaper articles from the relevant period. The period at hand experienced Soviet demands from Turkey, Turkey’s drive to the West, and domestic political (i.e., transition to the multi-party system) and economic (i.e., transition to the liberal economy) changes. In this atmosphere, the Turkish press, which had organic links with politicians, had a vital role in shaping the domestic public opinion according to the early Cold War dynamics. In other words, the press was instrumental both to make the Turkish public to believe that a change in Turkish foreign policy direction was absolutely necessary and to spread out messages to the world with regard to Turkey’s understanding of struggles among foreign powers, which could not be uttered by Turkish political figures through the official channels. Early Cold War perceptions and presentations of the Turkish press, including governmental and oppositional newspapers did not follow a linear trend, in fact they had many inconsistencies; besides, the press did not perceive international developments in a uniform manner. Nonetheless, as this thesis argued, the abovementioned perceptions did not appear to be divergent from each other.