2013 Gezi̇ Park protests in Turkey and their effects on Turkey's accession process to the EU: critical discourse analysis of the diverse statements of political decision makers on these protests

This study aims to search on whether the Gezi Park Protests in May and June 2013 in Turkey and the statements of the political decision-makers in Turkey, the European Union (EU) Institutions and the EU Member States have affected Turkey's accession process to the EU. For this aim, the prominent statements of the political decision-makers in Turkey, the EU institutions and Member States about the Gezi Park protests in the Turkish press are analyzed. In decision making process, political decision makers have a certain degree of importance which depends on the political culture of a country. While political decision-makers in Turkey are quite effective both in the decision-making process in government and their parties with a top down process, the political decision makers in many countries which are member states to the EU are less dominant because of a bottom up process in Western Europe. This difference in the decision-makers in political culture of Turkey also shows itself in her foreign policies and relations. When Turkey's EU journey is also examined, individual dominant effects of prominent political decision makers in their times such as Tansu Çiller, Bülent Ecevit and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are clearly recognized. During the Gezi Park protests which are analyzed in the scope of the New Social Movements theory in this thesis, the same individual and dominant effects of the prominent decision maker in Turkey who is Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were also seen despite different manners and statements of other important political decision-makers in Turkey such as Abdullah Gül and Bülent Arınç. These kinds of dominant effects of Prime Minister are analyzed through his statements about the protests with the Critical Discourse Analysis as the methodology of the thesis. After the protests and Turkish political decision makers' statements, decision-makers' statements in the EU institutions and the EU member states are also critically analyzed. Throughout the thesis, reports from different sources on the Gezi Park protests, news in Turkish mainstream media organizations and the questionnaires that the protestors filled during the events are used as well as reviewing relevant academic writings. At the end, whether Turkey's accession process has been affected by the Gezi Park protests and decision makers' statements are distinctively evaluated in terms of the short and long term.