TÜRKİYE’DEKİ GAZETELERİN RUSYA-UKRAYNA SAVAŞINA YAKLAŞIMI ÜZERİNE BİR DEĞERLENDİRME

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Europe has caught the attention of nations worldwide. Türkiye's proximity to these countries and long-existing political relations have caused the conflict to become an essential part of the main agenda in the Turkish press. The Black Sea– a vital logistic artery for the transportation of both energy sources and agricultural products to the rest of the world– is a commonplace of convergence for all three of these countries, and the affairs between them, already considered important with regards to international relations, soared into an even higher point of interest in the media following the war. The warring parties have been vigilant on the matter of the Turkish Straits, on the subject of Türkiye having the power to regulate all waterway activities, which led to officials from both Russia and Ukraine releasing statements on the matter in the initial days of the conflict, to put media’s power of creating a solid international public opinion to use. The Turkish press reacted promptly, sharing the news with Turkish readers after developments in February 2022. Thus, this paper reviews Turkish government officials' statements on the ongoing war and their narration, considering the miscellaneous reports in 4 Turkish newspapers. In this respect, the newspapers Yeni Şafak and Habertürk repre-sent the right wing. In contrast, Aydınlık and Cumhuriyet represent the left wing to deepen further the unders-tanding of how these newspapers acquired the necessary information and narrated the story in their reports. The paper, to assess the initial reaction to the war, strictly focuses on the news reported between the start of the war on February 28th and March 02nd, 2023, with the description of events, the parties of the war, internatio-nal reactions to the conflict, and the war’s impact on economy constituting the main headings under which the study showcases a thorough analysis of words that fall under the above-given headings, their frequency, why and how the newspaper had used them.