How does the Turkish media publish on Syrian refugees? An analysis of Turkish newspapers (2011-2015)

As the most substantial consequence of the civil war in Syria, migration has been one of the most debated issues in Turkey. By implementing an open-door policy Turkey has accepted the largest number of refugees and compared to other neighboring countries of Syria it has the largest refugee population. The objective of this dissertation is to find out how the Turkish press presents the Syrian migration issue. In this regard, three newspapers that represent different political stance are analyzed by using Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action. Taking Sözcü newspaper (nationalist-left, opposition), Milliyet newspaper (nationalist-right, liberal) and Sabah newspaper (pro-government) all the news that were published between April 2011 and April 2015 and were about Syrian refugees are analyzed. Categorizing the arguments presented in each news article in terms of utilitybased, values-based, and rights-based arguments I find that regardless of the political views of these three newspapers, while utility-based and value-based arguments were heavily used in the newspaper articles about Syrian refugees, rights-based arguments were not used as much as others in the newspaper articles. KEY WORDS: refugee, migration, media, the Syrian migration, Turkey