The Johnson Letter in Turkish press: Examining its presentation on Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet and Tercüman newpapers

Throughout history, many countries wanted to have the control of Cyprus because of its strategic geographical location. The island was conquered in 1571 by Ottomans and temporarily left to England during 1977-1878 Ottoman-Russian War. England proclaimed Cyprus during World War I, later it was transferred to England with the Treaty of Lausanne. Shortly after this transfer, Greek residents wanted to declare Enosis in Cyprus. In order to achieve this goal, Greeks living on the island started riots across the island. In 1955, EOKA terrorist organization killed many Turkish citizens living on the island, and these murders continued in 1960s too. Many countries, including the USA, kept silent against these developments. Later, Turkey decided to intervene to stop these undesired developments in Cyprus as the guarantor country. As a reaction to this action, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the president of the USA, sent a letter to İsmet İnönü, the prime minister of Turkish Republic, in order to persuade Turkish government to stop intervention. Known as "The Johson Letter", this message became a turning point in the relationship between Turkey and the USA since Turkey lost its confidence in the USA, which is its closest ally. The message, which was originally sent in 1964, was published on newspapers in 1966. This study aims to determine how this letter and the events that followed it were presented in the news and columns of different newspapers. For the purposes of the study, the news published on Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet and Tercüman newspapers were analyzed in three different periods by using qualitative and quantitate discourse analysis. According to the results, the news were presented in a similar way in the first two periods, which reflected mainly two concepts: disappointment and reproach. The third period was characterized with considerable differences in presentations.