Two Nawroz festivals: A comparative study of the reflections of Nawroz celebrations in 1992 and 2013 in Turkish media

Nawroz festivals are attributed political significance in Turkey. Especially since the beginnings of the 1990's, in addition to their being spring festivals Nawroz festivals have been evaluated as a symbol signifying the struggle given for their identity by Kurds as well as their nation building process. It is also important that either the presentation or representation of both those festivals and also the ones who celebrate them receive widespread and various media coverage. It means that different media channels, be they print or visual, have continuously approached the political meaning given to the festivals from their own ideological perspectives. Whereas the Nawroz festival held in Cizre in 1992 was broadcast by some of the media as an "uprising" and "terrorist acts aiming the unity of the Turkish Republic", some other presented it as "state terror". Interestingly, the same media organs reported the Nawroz Festival in 2013 as a new period signaling "peace and fraternity''. This thesis, mowing from the question how Nawroz festivals of different times were broadcast by print media, focuses on mainly two periods. In this regard, how both the Nawroz in Cizre in 1992 and the one in Diyarbakır in 2013 were presented in newspapers such as Hürriyet, Türkiye and Yeni Ülke/ Özgür Gündem is studied in this work by Teu van Dijk's discourse analysis method. As stated above, how both the Nawroz in Cizre in 1992 and the one in Diyarbakır in 2013 were reported in newspapers such as Hürriyet, Türkiye and Yeni Ülke/ Özgür Gündem for four days is studied in this work, which has extracted the following findings; 1. Official discourse is observed effectively dominant in the news of Hürriyet and Türkiye, 2. Nawroz is used in the news as a reference to reproduce both Turkish and Kurdish identities, 3. In the news of Hürriyet and Türkiye, Nawroz is framed around Turkish nationalist discourse whereas in the news of Özgür Gündem (Yeni Ülke) Nawroz is interpreted within Kurdish nationalist discourse. 4. Hürriyet and Türkiye apply the dichotomy between we and other in the discourse of their news, which as a result paves the way for othering Kurdish identity as opposed to the identity of "we" Turks. It is revealed in conclusion that despite the fact that their different approaches to the Kurdish Question of the governments in 1992 and 2013 are visible in their discourses as reflected in mass media, the hegemonic republican discourse in terms of the Kurdish Question is proven prevailing and decisive once again with reference to the reconstruction of the reality from the ideological perspectives of the aforementioned newspapers.