Political Polarisation and the Covid-19 Crisis in Turkey

Abstract

Following the tenets and tools of Multimodal Critical Discourse Studies, this chapter investigates the discourses disseminated in two major Turkish media outlets during the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter focuses on the controversial governmental ‘We are self-sufficient, my Turkey’ fundraising campaign and shows how the official narrative—based on Islam and the values of the Ottoman Empire—was disseminated with the help of the media outlet Sabah, ideologically close to the Islamic nationalist positions of President Erdoğan. This narrative was countered in the daily Sözcü (more akin to the Westernising stance of the political opposition) mainly by giving voice to political figures who denounced and exposed the corrupt strategies of a regime that only benefits the few. The chapter evidences the high mediatic and political polarisation of the country, the strength gained by President Erdoğan and the resistance mounted by his opponents.