The problem of Israel-Palestine and perception management in Turkish press (1947-2010)

Turkey's relationship with Palestinian people and Israeli Jews started long before the establishment of Israel. Ottoman Empire welcomed the expelled Jews from all over the world, yet could not prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in the lands of Palestine, which the Empire has ruled for 400 years. The relationship of the governments of Turkish Republic with Israel has been full of ups and downs since its establishment dated back to 1948. This case reflected on Turkish press in line with foreign policy outlook. The issue of Palestine was the basic factor shaping the Turkey-Israel relationships. In 1990s Turkey-Israel relationship reached to the level of "strategic allience", in the years of 2000s started to recess due to Israel's policies towards Palestinians. After the Mavi Marmara crisis of June 2010 the relationship came to the breaking point. In this study, it was discussed that; how Israel-Palestine issue, specifically in the context of Turkey related incidents, has been reflected on Turkish press, and as claimed by some sources, weather a pro-Israel perception management was done, by using the "critical discourse analysis" method of Teun A. Van Dijk. The unit of analysis was determined as news titles and news texts in the newspapers. Keywords: Israel, Palestine, Middle East, Turkish Press, perception management, critical discourse analysis, newspaper, news