The Representation(s) of Turkey’s EU Journey in Islamic Newspaper

Abstract

This paper argues that relations between the EU and Turkey over the last fifty years have caused serious cracks in the Islamist media’s perspectives towards Europe. Based on the actual data, I demonstrate and discuss that while traditional political, cultural and ideological references in Islamic newspapers remain the same, the dominant discourses through which they respond to Europe and the political strategies of the Islamic-rooted, conservative Adaletve Kalkinma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, AKP) towards EU accession, show significant differences. To demonstrate this, I first offer a brief overview of the history of relations between the EU and Turkey, dealing with the major turning points of Turkey’s journey towards admission into the EU. Following this is the section focusing on shifting discourses in Turkish Islamists’ perceptions of Europe and the European Union (EU), particularly over the last two decades. This paper will then deal with actual information gathered from the four Islamic dailies (i.e., Zaman, Yeni Safak, Anadolu’da Vakit, and Milli Gazete). I utilize the techniques widely used in critical discourse analysis (CDA) in order to analyze the dominant discourses embedded in news stories which have appeared before, during, and after the release of the progress and strategy reports given by the EU in 2006.