BRITISH EDITORIALS PORTRAYAL OF TURKEY DURING THE 2000S: AN ANALYSIS OF THE GUARDIAN, THE FINANCIAL TIMES, AND THE DAILY TELEGRAPH 2000’LERDE TÜRKİYE’NİN İNGİLİZ BAŞYAZILARINDA TASVİR EDİLME BİÇİMLERİ: THE GUARDIAN, THE FINANCIAL TIMES VE THE DAILY TELEGRAPH İNCELEMESİ

A leading article or editorial is an opinion piece written by the editorial staff of a newspaper and represents the opinion of the publisher. This study examines the portrayal of Turkey as presented within the broad context of political media discourse in the leading articles of three influential British quality newspapers: the Guardian, the Financial Times, and the Daily Telegraph, between 2005 and 2010. The aim is to find out what arguments/issues the editorials cover in favour of or against Turkey, and whether Turkey’s multi-dimensional EastWest transformation has influenced the political discourses and the nature of news in the British press. A qualitative content analysis was performed on three newspapers’ leading articles. Findings indicate that although editorial staff of British conservative, labour, and liberal press had a great deal to talk about apparently different subjects that constitute comments on Turkey’s turbulent relationship with the European Union, or its human rights record, unending debate on secularism versus Islamist politics or lack of ethnic minority rights domestically; at the same time, they had created a rather positive, constructive and consistent political image of Turkey, by portraying the country as a rather democratic, secular, Muslim state that can create a bridge between the West and the Middle East in international affairs.