Media Representation of Afghan and Ukrainian Refugees in Turkey: A Comparative Analysis of Sabah and Sözcü Newspapers

Recent geopolitical events have precipitated a refugee crisis affecting Turkey, among other countries. The Taliban's seizure of control in Afghanistan and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have led to significant influxes of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, respectively, into Turkey. This study examines the media representation of these two refugee groups in Turkish media, focusing on the country's two most-read online newspapers, Sabah and Sözcü, which represent divergent political stances. Employing Mollard's (2001) classification model and thematic analysis, this research investigates how these newspapers depict each refugee group, aiming to understand the role of political orientation in refugee-related news coverage. The findings reveal that both newspapers, despite their political differences, generally portrayed Ukrainian refugees positively and Afghan refugees negatively. However, nuanced differences emerged in their reporting styles. Sabah emphasized the hospitality of Turkish people and the government towards Ukrainian refugees, while Sözcü adopted a more moderate stance, reporting both tragic stories and instances of illegal activities among Ukrainian refugees. Notably, while Ukrainian refugees (including stories about Ukrainian women) were prominently featured in Sözcü, regardless of positive or negative portrayal, Afghan women were conspicuously absent from both newspapers' coverage. This omission indicates a neglect of Afghan women's specific challenges and effectively renders them invisible in the media narrative. This study contributes to the understanding of media representation of diverse refugee groups and highlights the complex interplay between political orientation and refugee portrayal in media discourse.