An analysis on the political reflections of the concepts of mankurt and közkaman in the national press

The concepts of mankurt and közkaman, which emerged with the Manas Epic, still maintain their importance and actuality today. The fact that the Epic of Manas, which is a lesson for the Kyrgyz, has a politically stimulating quality as well as teaching, increases the importance of the concepts even more. After President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed the concept of mankurt in the rally with the slogan "Millions of Breaths, One Voice Against Terror" in Yenikapı district of Istanbul, where hundreds of thousands of people participated, on September 20, 2015, the frequency of use of the concept in the political field and in the media has gradually increased. So much so that the concepts of mankurt and közkaman could not find a place as news in Yeni Şafak, Yeniçağ, Birgün, Evrensel, Sabah and Cumhuriyet internet newspapers before 2015, and only 1 news was presented in Hürriyet newspaper. As of 2015, with the increase in the discourse of Turkish politicians on the concepts, the news contents related to the concepts are 24 in Yeni Şafak, 21 in Yeniçağ, 22 in Hürriyet, 27 in Sabah, 8 in Cumhuriyet, 13 in Birgün. It was presented to the public as 115 news. All these developments have led to the determination of 2015 as the turning point of the increasing political discourses regarding the concepts in the study and have been effective in determining the date range related to the research. In this study, the discourses of Turkish politicians about the concepts of mankurt and közkaman in the last 6 years in Turkey were examined in accordance with the critical discourse analysis method developed by communication theorist T. Van Dijk in 7 newspapers (Yeni Şafak, Yeniçağ, Hürriyet, Sabah, Birgün, Cumhuriyet, Evrensel) with different ideological publishing understanding. In the light of the data obtained, the research questions of the study were also tried to be answered. As a result of the critical discourse analysis of this study, it has been concluded that Turkish politicians' discourses on the concepts of mankurt and közkaman are used in a one-to-one harmony, reflecting the meanings of the Epic of Manas and the works of Cengiz Aytmatov, without being detached from the main context of the concepts. It is also seen that there is a national emphasis in the discourses about the concepts of mankurt and közkaman, which are used by Turkish politicians to characterize terrorist organizations and terrorist elements. In addition, it has been determined that with these concepts integrated with the ideology of nationalism, the society is warned against internal and external threats with a national style. In this context, it would be appropriate to say that these concepts, which are described as domestic and national, also make some contributions to Turkish nationalist discourses. When the news about these concepts, which are used more frequently in the political language, is examined, it is seen that the newspapers Yeniçağ, Yeni Şafak, Sabah, Hürriyet and Birgün present the discourses about the concepts to the readers in a direct way, without adding ideological comments. However, when the news of Cumhuriyet newspaper on concepts is examined, it is seen that sometimes comments are added to the news. However, although it was expected that the discourses on the concepts expressed by the leading figures of Turkish politicians would be published as news in all newspapers, it was also determined that the newspaper Evrensel kept aloof from the subject by not publishing any news about the concepts.