How BBC Türkçe translates conflict: Narrative discourse and the War in Ukraine

In times of global crisis, the intersection of translation and journalism has a particular importance as narratives are created, mediated, and disseminated across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The collaboration between these two fields is critical for shaping the public understanding of the global events and conflicts. Within this context, this study explores how BBC Türkçe, the Turkish branch of the British Broadcasting Corporation, translates and reconstructs the news narrative about Russo-Ukrainian War originally produced by BBC News in English. The study investigates how different kind of narratives are transformed or transferred when it comes to the act of translation. Grounded in narrative theory and relevance theory, the study analyzes how ideological positioning, cultural expectations, and institutional limitations might shape translation decisions. The research uses two corpora compiled from BBC News and BBC Türkçe news articles published between February 2022 and September 2023 for the discourse analysis. It uses close reading and corpus-assisted discourse analysis to find patterns in word choice, omission, and recontextualization; and investigates the shifts in particular narrative elements. The study highlights the active role of translation in influencing the public's perception of conflict by examining these processes and adding to broader discussion in translation studies, media discourse, and international communication.