Religious solidarity, historical mission and moral superiority: construction of external and internal ‘others’ in AKP’s discourses on Syrian refugees in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Turkey hosts the world’s largest community of displaced Syrians. According to UNHCR, there are more than 3 million registered Syrians in Turkey as of 2018. Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in 2011, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has followed an open-door policy, which was accompanied by a discourse emphasizing religious solidarity and humanitarian values. However, the arrival of Syrian refugees has become entangled with the existing identity debates and conflicts in Turkish politics. The AKP’s discourse on Syrian refugees has become intertwined with its positive self-representation as the defender of all oppressed people (mazlum) and its attempts to reconstruct the Turkish nation along more Islamic lines. The article analyses parliamentary debates and presidential speeches in order to unravel AKP discourses on Syrian refugees. Drawing upon the Discourse Historical Approach in Critical Discourse Analysis, the article puts forward two arguments. First, the refugee issue has become a constitutive component of AKP identity and a discursive tool to reconstruct the nation along more Islamic lines. Second, Turkey’s refugee policy has become a source of pride and enabled the AKP to claim moral superiority both vis-à-vis the West and its political opponents at home.

KEYWORDS:

• Turkey
• refugees
• Syrian refugees
• Justice and Development Party
• JDP
• Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi
• AKP
• Erdoğan
• critical discourse analysis
• Syria
• discourse-historical approach
• refugee discourses

Acknowledgements

I presented earlier versions of this paper at the Centre for Ideology and Discourse Analysis (CIDA) at the Unievrsity of Essex and at a Department of Politics and Public Policy seminar at De Montfort University. I would like to thank the organizers and participants of these events. I would also like to thank Vivien Lowndes, David Howarth and anonymous referees for their valuable comments and recommendations. Finally, I would like to thank Ceren Keser and Yasin Kanik for their research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Rabia Karakaya Polat is professor of politics at the Department of International Relations at Işık University, Istanbul. She is also a visiting fellow at the Department of Government at the University of Essex. Her current research focuses on critical discourse analysis and discourses on refugees. Email: [email protected]

Notes

1 www.tbmm.gov.tr.

2 Before this election, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was the Prime Minister and Abdullah Gül, one of the founders of AKP, was the President. During his term in Office as the Prime Minister until August 2014 it was Erdoğan who set the agenda in many domestic and foreign policy issues. When he became the President he continued this attitude despite constitutional limits.

3 The relevant speeches have been translated from Turkish to English by the author with special emphasis on retaining precise meanings in expressions.

4 “Onlar ensar, muhacir ne demek bilmezler” [“They don’t know what ensar and muhacir mean”], TRT Haber, 18 February 2015, http://www.trthaber.com/haber/gundem/onlar-ensar-muhacirne-demek-bilmezler-168651.html

5 https://www.tccb.gov.tr/konusmalar/353/2936/birlesmis-milletler-69uncu-genel-kurulu-genel-gorusmelerinde-yaptiklari-konusma.html.

6 For the most obvious example see the Gaza flotilla incident https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/01/gaza-flotilla-raid-turkey-prime-minister-israel.

7 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/09/turkey-refugee-crisis-christian-fortress-europe.

8 https://www.haberler.com/davutoglu-suriye-draminin-bas-sorumlusu-bm-5556856-haberi/.

9 https://www.tccb.gov.tr/en/news/542/89052/our-motto-the-world-is-bigger-than-five-is-the-biggest-ever-rise-against-global-injustice.html.

10 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/09/turkey-refugee-crisis-christian-fortress-europe.

11 See statement by President Erdoğan at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/12/turkish-president-threatens-to-send-millionsof-syrian-refugees-to-eu Also see statement by Minister of European Union at https://www.ntv.com.tr/dunya/bakan-celik-gocmenanlasmasinin-surdurulmesi-icin-bir-sebep-yok,VAabM6pOJE65CI_m8XtTkQ.

12 https://www.tccb.gov.tr/konusmalar/353/2992/afad-22-lojistik-merkez-toplu-acilis-toreninde-yaptiklari-konusma.html.

13 http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/diger/368660/Basbakan_Erdogan__Yargiya_gerekeni_soyledik.html.

14 For more on this issue: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/explained-kobane-or-ayn-al-arab.aspx?pageID=238&nID=73591&NewsCatID=359.

15 http://www.radikal.com.tr/politika/arinctan-goc-dalgasi-uyarisi-1213822/.