Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media
The author, who is working at the moment as a translator and contributor to a Turkish news web site, has made an attempt to study how the Euromaidan events were represented in Turkish mass media.
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Iнститут соціології НАН України
2016
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| Назва видання: | Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг |
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| Цитувати: | Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media / O. Maksymenko // Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг. — 2016. — № 2. — С. 162-173. — рос. |
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irk-123456789-1819722021-12-07T01:26:25Z Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media Maksymenko, O. The author, who is working at the moment as a translator and contributor to a Turkish news web site, has made an attempt to study how the Euromaidan events were represented in Turkish mass media. 2016 Article Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media / O. Maksymenko // Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг. — 2016. — № 2. — С. 162-173. — рос. 1563-4426 http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/181972 329.7 en Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг Iнститут соціології НАН України |
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The author, who is working at the moment as a translator and contributor to a Turkish news web site, has made an attempt to study how the Euromaidan events were represented in Turkish mass media. |
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Article |
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Maksymenko, O. |
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Maksymenko, O. Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг |
| author_facet |
Maksymenko, O. |
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Maksymenko, O. |
| title |
Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media |
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Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media |
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Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media |
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Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media |
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Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media |
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ukraine’s euromaidan in turkish media |
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Iнститут соціології НАН України |
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2016 |
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http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/181972 |
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Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media / O. Maksymenko // Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг. — 2016. — № 2. — С. 162-173. — рос. |
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Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг |
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1837758949984567296 |
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Ol’ha Maksymenko
Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media
OL’HA MAKSYMENKO,UDC 329.7
Lead ing So ci ol o gist of the De part ment of Meth -
od ol ogy and Meth ods of So ci ol ogy, In sti tute of
So ci ol ogy, NAS of Ukraine
Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media1
Ab stract
Euromaidan, also known as the Rev o lu tion of Dig nity, is un doubt edly an ep och-mak -
ing event in the his tory of in de pend ent Ukraine. The mass pro tests, which be gan in
Kyiv as a re sponse to the gov ern ment’s sud den de ci sion to aban don the planned sign -
ing of land mark agree ments with the EU and a short time later spread far be yond the
cap i tal of Ukraine, cap tured the at ten tion of the global com mu nity and were widely
cov ered by the world’s mass me dia. Tur key, whose po lit i cal life has al ways been full of
con tra dic tions, did not stand aside ei ther. The au thor, who is work ing at the mo ment as
a trans la tor and con trib u tor to a Turk ish news web site, has made an at tempt to study
how the Euromaidan events were rep re sented in Turk ish mass me dia. The fol low ing as -
pects have been taken into con sid er ation: a) what caused mass pro tests in Kyiv’s In de -
pend ence Square (both im me di ate and re mote causes were ana lysed); b) who were
mainly Euromaidan par tic i pants, how they looked and be haved, how they de scribed
their po lit i cal views and ex plained their own mo tives for par tic i pa tion in anti-gov ern -
ment pro tests; c) what was the char ac ter of pro tests and how it changed over time; d)
what forces con trib uted to the con tin u a tion of pro tests; e) the out comes of the Rev o lu -
tion of Dignity; f) predictions about what “a post-Maidan Ukraine” will look like in the
near future.
Keywords: Euromaidan, Tur key, free dom of speech, civil lib er ties, in de pend ent me -
dia out lets, pro-gov ern ment news pa pers, news cov er age
162 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 2
1 This is a slightly modified version of the presentation made at the 8th International
Sociological Readings in memory of the eminent Ukrainian sociologist Natalia Panina “The
Maidan Phenomenon in Ukrainian Society: Sociological Interpretations” (Kyiv, Institute of
Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 10 December 2014).
As we live in a globalised world, key events in a coun try’s so cial and po lit i cal
life at tract the at ten tion of the world’s lead ing mass me dia and evoke nu mer ous
com ments. The Euromaidan, which (like the Or ange Rev o lu tion) was bound to
be come a turn ing point in Ukraine’s post-So viet his tory, is not an ex cep tion in
this re gard.
Table
Classification of Turkish mass media by place of publication
Mass media published in Turkey Mass media published
in Turkish beyond Turkey
The print edi tion of the Turkiye (“Tur key”) news -
pa per. Elec tronic ver sion is avail able at:
http://www.turkiyegazetesi.com.tr
The print edi tion of the Vatan (“The Moth er -
land”) news pa per. Elec tronic ver sion is avail able
at: http://gazetevatan.com
The print edi tion of the Cumhuriyet (“The Re pub -
lic”) news pa per. Elec tronic ver sion is avail able at:
http://cumhuriyet.com.tr
The print edi tion of the Milliyet (“The Na tion”)
news pa per. Elec tronic ver sion is avail able at:
http://milliyet.com.tr
The print edi tion of the Hurriyet (“The Free -
dom”) news pa per. Elec tronic ver sion is avail able
at: http://hurriyet.com.tr
The print edi tion of the Zaman (“Time”) news pa -
per. Elec tronic ver sion is avail able at:
http://zaman.com.tr
The print edi tion of the Sabah (“The Morn ing”)
news pa per. Elec tronic ver sion is avail able at:
http://sabah.com.tr
Anadolu Ajansi (“Anatolia” news agency) web
site. Avail able at: http://aa.com.tr
An electronic newspaper Haber Vaktim (“My Ti me
for News”). Available at: http://habervaktim.com
An elec tronic news pa per Ozgur Gundem (“The
Free Agenda)”. Avail able at:
http://ozgur-gundem.com
Cihan Haber Ajansi (“The World” news agency)
web site: http://cihan.com.tr
The web site of broad cast news ser -
vice Rusya’nin Sesi Radyosu (“The
Voice of Rus sia”): http://turk -
ish.ruvr.ru
News web site TurkHaber — Ukrayna
Haberleri (“News about Ukraine in
Turk ish”). Avail able at:
http://turkhaber.com.ua
News por tal Ukrayna Gundem
(“Ukraine is on the Agenda”). Avail -
able at: http://ukraynagundem.com
News web site UkrTurk — Ukrayna’ya
acilis sayfasi (“UkrTurk — a Page
Opened To wards Ukraine”). Avail -
able at: http://ukrturk.net
News por tal Avrasya Haber (“Eur -
asian News”). Avail able at:
http://www.avrasya-haber.com
Kirim Haber Ajansi (“Cri mean News
Agency”) web site: http://qha.com.ua
Turk ish ver sions of the web sites of
Euronews, BBC, Deut sche Welle, etc.
The pa per fo cuses on how the Euromaidan events were rep re sented in Turk -
ish mass me dia. There are sev eral rea sons for why this is sue might be of some in -
ter est. First, Tur key keeps strength en ing its po si tion on the in ter na tional scene.
Be sides, both trade and eco nomic re la tion ship and cul tural links be tween Tur key
and Ukraine have de vel oped rap idly in re cent years. Sec ond, pe cu lia r i ties of Tur -
key’s in te gra tion into the Eu ro pean Un ion are also worth men tion ing: Tur key
had signed the As so ci a tion Agree ment with the Eu ro pean Eco nomic Com mu -
nity (an ces tor of the EU) as early as 1963; more over, it has been a NATO mem ber
since 1952. In 1996, Tur key con cluded the FTA (Free Trade Agree ment) with
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 2 163
Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media
the Eu ro pean Un ion. Nev er the less, it still re mains a can di date coun try for EU ac -
ces sion. A num ber of Eu ro pean coun tries are against Tur key’s EU mem ber ship
since they think that An kara does not fol low the key Eu ro pean stan dards of de -
moc racy. Third, be ing a so cial in sti tu tion the mass me dia play an es pe cially im -
por tant role in the so ci ety as they are able both to in spire ab so lute trust and pro -
voke to tal dis trust, both to con sol i date and split the so ci ety. An other rea son for
why the au thor chose this topic is her ex pe ri ence of work ing as a trans la tor and
con trib u tor to a news web site TurkHaber — Ukrayna Haberleri (“News about
Ukraine in Turk ish”)1.
Try ing to pro vide a com plete pic ture of the Euromaidan events (and how
they were in ter preted in Turk ish me dia), the au thor has ana lysed about 20 news -
pa per ar ti cles from var i ous sources. To make the anal y sis more con ve nient and
clear-cut, the au thor di vided all Turk ish mass me dia into two big groups: the first
group con sisted of pa per and elec tronic me dia pub lished in Tur key, the sec ond
one in cluded the mass me dia pub lished in Turk ish be yond Tur key2 and Turkish
versions of international news agencies such as Euronews, BBC, Al Jazeera, etc.
(see Table).
Before analysing the newspaper articles which describe the Euromaidan
events, it would be advisable to give some information concerning the mass
media mentioned here.
Mass me dia pub lished in Tur key
Turkiye (“Tur key” in Turk ish) is a daily news pa per es tab lished by Enver
Oren (1939–2013), a well-known busi ness man and an hon or ary mem ber of the
In ter na tional Is lamic Acad emy of Sci ences. The first ti tle of the news pa per was
Hakikat (“The Truth”). Its first is sue dated 22 April, 1970. In 1972, it was re -
named Turkiye. The news pa per is owned by the Ihlas3 Holding Group of Com pa -
nies, whose founder was Enver Oren too. The newspaper’s readership consists
mainly of the so-called right-wing voters (adherents of the centre-right Party of
Justice and Development4 established in 2001 by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the
current President of Turkey, and supporters of the far-right Party of Nationalist
Movement5 led by Devlet Bahceli). That is the first newspaper in Turkey, which
began being distributed on a subscription basis. It is interesting that on 10
December, 1989, the newspaper set a record when 1,424,350 copies were sold in
one day. None of Turkish periodicals has broken its record yet.
164 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 2
Ol’ha Maksymenko
1 The titles and headlines of the newspapers and quotes from the articles mentioned here
may not be translated literally. Some Turkish characters may not be displayed either.
2 This group of mass media mainly covers the events in social, economic and political life of a
country where they are published.
3 Ihlas literally means “purity” or “sincerity”. Besides, it is the name of the 112th surah of the
Holy Qur’an.
4 The Justice and Development Party (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, or AKP) has
been described as a “broad right-wing coalition of Islamists, reformist Islamists, conservatives,
nationalists, centre-right, and pro-business groups”. Now the AKP is the ruling party in
Turkey.
5 Turkish: Milliyetci Hareket Partisi, or MHP.
Anadolu Ajansi, or AA (“Anatolia Agency” in Turk ish) is the old est news
agency in Tur key. It was es tab lished on 6 April, 1920, by the founder and first
Pres i dent of the Re pub lic of Tur key Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to gether with a re -
nowned jour nal ist Yunus Nadi Abalioglu and woman writer Ha lide Edip Adivar.
To day Anadolu Ajansi is a state-run me dia out let. The AA’s motto is: “Trust wor -
thy, un bi ased and fast news re port ing” (“Dogru, tarafsiz ve hizli habercilik”).
Since De cem ber 2014 the po si tion of Di rec tor Gen eral and Chair man of the
Board of Di rec tors of Anadolu Ajansi has been oc cu pied by Senol Kazanci, for mer
Coun sel lor to the Pres i dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The agency’s net work cov -
ers over 30 coun tries world-wide.
The cen tre-left news pa per Hurriyet (“free dom” in Turk ish) was founded on
May 1, 1948, by Sedat Simavi (1896–1953), a well-known Turk ish jour nal ist and
writer. The news pa per is a part of the Dogan Me dia Group, owned by Aydin
Dogan, a well-known busi ness man and me dia pro pri etor. Be ing lib eral and
pro-sec u lar in po lit i cal out look, the news pa per was tar geted by Turk ish au thor i -
ties: in Sep tem ber 2015, Hurriyet’s of fices were at tacked by pro-gov ern ment
mobs who ground lessly ac cused it of sym pa this ing with the banned Kurdistan
Work ers Party (PKK) in sur gent groups.
The founder of a daily news pa per Milliyet (“na tion” in Turk ish) was a
well-known Turk ish jour nal ist Ali Naci Karacan (1896–1955). Its first is sue
dated 3 May, 1950. Af ter Karacan’s death the news pa per was pub lished by his
son. On Feb ru ary 1, 1979, Abdi Ipekci, the ed i tor-in-chief of Milliyet, was mur -
dered by ter ror ist Mehmet Ali Agca, who at tempted to as sas si nate the Pope John
Paul II two years later. In 2012–2013, a sig nif i cant num ber of the news pa per’s
jour nal ists were dis missed be cause of be ing crit i cal of the rul ing Jus tice and De -
vel op ment Party and gov ern ment.
The cen tre-right news pa per Sabah (“morn ing” in Turk ish) is a part of the
hold ing Turkuvaz (“tur quoise” in Turk ish) Me dia Group. It was founded on April
22, 1985. Since the 1990s it has been pub lished in Ger many and other Eu ro pean
coun tries (for the Turk ish Di as pora).
The cen tre-left news pa per Vatan (“Moth er land” in Turk ish) was es tab lished
on Sep tem ber 2, 2002. To gether with the above-men tioned Milliyet it has been a
part of the hold ing Demiroren Group since 2012. The news pa per por trays it self as
a fol lower of Ataturk’s ide ol ogy. The Vatan’s motto is: “The Coun try’s Best
News pa per” (“Ulkenin en iyi gazetesi”).
Zaman (“time” or “era” in Turk ish) is a daily news pa per founded on 3 No vem -
ber, 1986. Its first ed i tor-in-chief was Fehmi Koru, a Turk ish jour nal ist and
writer. Zaman was a ma jor, high-cir cu la tion daily be fore be ing seized by the gov -
ern ment au thor i ties on 4 March, 2016 (the cir cu la tion was around 650,000 as of
Feb ru ary 2016). It was the first Turk ish daily to set up an on line ver sion in 1995.
The news pa per was pun ished more than once for crit i cism against the rul ing
party and Turk ish Pres i dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In De cem ber 2014, Ekrem
Dumanli (who was the news pa per’s ed i tor-in-chief at that time) to gether with
sev eral other Zaman’s jour nal ists was ar rested on charges of plot ting a coup and
be long ing to a ter ror ist or gani sa tion. Their ar rests evoked in dig na tion in the
world. Tur key’s at tempts to si lence crit i cal me dia were called “re peated in fringe -
ment on civil lib er ties”. The world’s lead ing law yers and of fi cials urged Tur key to
re spect free dom of speech. Ekrem Dumanli re mained in cus tody for six days and
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 2 165
Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media
was con tin u ously in ter ro gated. Then he was re leased for lack of ev i dence. But he
was barred from trav el ling abroad. An other fact worth men tion ing is that Du -
manli was ar rested a short time af ter pub lish ing his in ter view with Fethullah
Gulen1, a re nowned Is lamic cleric, who of ten criti cised Erdogan’s pol i cies. Tur k -
ish Pres i dent claims that Fethullah Gulen (who is cur rently liv ing in self- im -
posed ex ile in the USA) has cre ated and fi nanced a “par al lel state” in side Tur key,
whose pur pose is to un der mine and pos si bly over throw the elected Turk ish gov -
ern ment. Erdogan im puted pro tests in Is tan bul’s Taksim Square in June 2013
and pub li ca tion of ma te ri als “dis cred it ing” the gov ern ment (in fact, the “dis -
credit” meant pub li ca tions about cor rup tion among per sons close to Pres i dent)
to ac tiv i ties of Gulen’s supporters among high-ranking Turkish officials.
Just a day af ter be ing seized and put un der the ad min is tra tion of a court-ap -
pointed panel of trust ees, Zaman switched to a pro-gov ern ment line. Un doubt -
edly, the court-or dered take over of the news pa per was one of the dark est pages in
his tory of Turk ish press.
Cumhuriyet (“re pub lic” in Turk ish) is the old est up-mar ket Turk ish daily
news pa per. Its first is sue dated May 7, 1924. The name “Cumhuriyet” was given to
the news pa per by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was also a founder of the Re pub li -
can Peo ple’s Party2. Dur ing 1978–2000 seven Cumhuriyet’s jour nal ists were killed
by un known per sons and one was heavily wounded (ac tu ally, the 1970s and ’80s
were a pe riod of po lit i cal mur ders in Tur key, and on Sep tem ber 12, 1980, there oc -
curred a mil i tary coup d’etat). In Jan u ary 2015, hav ing pub lished car toons from
French sa tir i cal weekly Char lie Hebdo (af ter the mag a zine had been at tacked by
ter ror ists), the news pa per evoked re sent ment among many Turk ish Mus lims3.
The news pa per Ozgur Gundem (“free agenda” in Turk ish) was pub lished
daily all over Tur key from May 30, 1992, to April 14, 1994. There were Ozgur
Gundem’s Turk ish and Kurdish ver sions. The news pa per mainly cov ered the
Turk ish-Kurdish con flict4. Being accused of supporting the Kurdistan Workers’
Party5, it was closed down by court decision. Most contributors of the newspaper
were arrested, convicted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Be -
sides, almost 30 Ozgur Gundem’s correspondents and newsagents had been killed
by unknown persons for less than two years of its existence. The paper began to
appear again in April 2011. The newspaper’s motto is: “The truth will not remain
in the dark” (“Gercekler karanlikta kalmayacak”).
166 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 2
Ol’ha Maksymenko
1 Fethullah Gulen had been a strong ally of the Turkish President in the past, but this
alliance came to a swift end when prosecutors seen as sympathetic to Gulen the opened
corruption investigation into Erdogan’s inner circle in late 2013.
2 The Republican People’s Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, or CHP) is at present
the main opposition party in Turkey.
3 Can Dundar, the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, was arrested in November 2015 on charges
of espionage after alleging that Turkey’s Intelligence Agency helped deliver weapons to
Islamist rebels in Syria.
4 An armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish insurgent groups,
which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or to have
autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey.
5 A militant left-wing organisation based in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan.
On 14 March 2016, An kara Pub lic Pros e cu tor’s Of fice started a new in ves ti -
ga tion against the news pa per for al leg edly “mak ing pro pa ganda for a ter ror ist or -
gani sa tion”.
Mass me dia pub lished be yond Tur key
The web site http://tr.sputniknews.com/turk ish.ruvr.ru is a Turk ish ver sion
of news ser vice Sput nik1, launched in November 2014 by Russia Today (RT).
Previously, until November 2014, it was the web site of the radio station “Voice of
Russia” (Rusya’nin Sesi Radyosu RS FM). Now RT is a Russian government-
funded television network that runs cable and satellite TV channels directed to
audiences outside Russia as well as provides content in multiple languages, in -
cluding Russian. The editor-in-chief is a Russian journalist Margarita Simo nyan.
The news por tal Avrasya Haber (“Eur asian News”) cov ers po lit i cal, eco -
nomic and cul tural events not only in Ukraine, but also in Rus sia, Belarus, and
other coun tries in the post-So viet space. Deniz Berktay, a Turk ish jour nal ist and
con trib u tor to the news pa per Cumhuriyet and to the web site of the tele vi sion
news chan nel Al Jazeera Turk, is the founder of Avrasya Haber.
Kirim Haber Ajansi (“The Cri mean News Agency”), as fol lows from its name,
is a de tailed over view of events in Ukraine and Cri mea.
The above-men tioned news web site TurkHaber — Ukrayna Haberleri to gether
with Ukrayna Haber, Ukrayna Gundem, UkrTurk, etc., pays at ten tion mainly to key
events in Ukraine and abroad. Both pro fes sional jour nal ists and am a teurs (who, in
their turn, are mem bers of the In ter na tional Turk ish-Ukrai nian Busi ness men As -
so ci a tion) are in volved in pre par ing con tent for these web sites. Ukrayna Haber
was cre ated by Yunus Erdogdu, a news re porter of the Cihan agency2. The au thor of
the UkrTurk site is Serkan Bag, a Turk ish jour nal ist and econ o mist.
The anal y sis of the Euromaidan events, which later were called the Rev o lu -
tion of Dig nity, em braces the fol low ing as pects: a) what caused mass pro tests in
Kyiv’s In de pend ence Square (both im me di ate and re mote causes were ana lysed);
b) who were mainly Euromaidan par tic i pants, how they looked and be haved,
how they de scribed their po lit i cal views and ex plained their own mo tives for par -
tic i pa tion in anti-gov ern ment pro tests; c) what was the char ac ter of pro tests and
how it changed over time; d) what forces con trib uted to the con tin u a tion of pro -
tests; e) the out comes of the Rev o lu tion of Dig nity; f) pre dic tions about what “a
post-Maidan Ukraine” will look like in the near fu ture. Be sides, some au thors
make a com par i son be tween Euromaidan and sim i lar acts of civil dis obe di ence in
Ukraine (first of all, the Or ange Rev o lu tion) and other coun tries.
As a mat ter of fact, the main rea son for start ing pro tests in Maidan was
Viktor Yanukovych’s (who was the Pres i dent of Ukraine at that time) re fusal to
sign the As so ci a tion Agree ment with the EU at the East ern Part ner ship Sum mit,
which would be held sev eral days later, on 28–29 No vem ber 2013, in Vilnius. The
Turkiye news pa per in ter prets these events in the fol low ing way: “Kyiv has sus -
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 2 167
Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media
1 On 14 April 2016, access to Sputnik’s website was blocked from Turkey by Turkey’s
Telecommunications Authority.
2 Istanbul-based Cihan news agency was also seized and put under state control on 4 March
2016.
pended prep a ra tions for Eu ro pean part ner ship, since there is no sign that the Eu -
ro pean Un ion will make up losses that could be in flicted on Ukraine (in case of
ac ces sion to the EU)” (“Avrupa Birligi’nden Ukrayna’nin zararlarinin telafi edile -
cegine iliskin bir isaret alinamamasindan dolayi Kiev Avrupa ortakligi surecini
durdurdu”). Cer tainly, there is no point in cit ing the en tire ar ti cle (the same is
true for other ar ti cles men tioned here); oth er wise, the pa per will be too long. It
would be more ad vis able to fo cus on the most sig nif i cant points. First, Ukraine’s
trade re la tions with Rus sia and other CIS coun tries have weak ened con sid er ably
over the last four months (from Au gust to No vem ber 2013); as a re sult, Ukraine’s
econ omy has in curred sub stan tial losses, which are be ing de lib er ately ne glected
in or der to dis tract pub lic at ten tion from the prob lem. Sec ond, Ukraine is likely
to in cur even more losses if the gov ern ment con tin ues rap proche ment with the
EU: in dus trial en ter prises will cer tainly be closed down, and un em ploy ment will
in crease. Need less to say, these losses can be nei ther avoided nor made up1.
The res o lu tion of the Cab i net of Min is ters on sus pend ing the pro cess of prep -
a ra tion for con clud ing the Ukraine-EU As so ci a tion Agree ment evoked strong
dis con tent among most Ukrai ni ans, while Rus sian po lit i cal elites ex pressed their
ap proval. Nu mer ous me dia out lets re ported that Mos cow was sat is fied “with
Ukraine’s de ci sion to de velop co op er a tion with Rus sia and other CIS coun -
tries”2. It was also emphasised that the European Union was disappointed with
Ukraine’s decision to freeze all efforts towards signing the Association Agree -
ment, and if the decision was implemented all the Ukrainian people would be
disappointed. However, “the ball is still on the Ukrainian side” (“top Ukrayna’nin
sahasinda”), so Ukraine has the right to choose which way to go.
An other ar ti cle (from the same web site) be gins with the words: “Eu ro pean
coun tries ex ert pres sure on Ukraine and try to black mail it”. This is an ex cerpt
from the an swer given by the Pres i dent of Rus sia Vladi mir Putin to a re porter of
the Interfax news agency at the press con fer ence fol low ing the Fourth Meet ing of
the High-Level Rus sian-Turk ish Co op er a tion Coun cil3: “We have really heard
intimidation from our European partners towards Ukraine — even to the extent
that they will instigate mass protests. This is pressure and blackmail” (“Aslinda,
Avrupali ortaklarimiz tarafindan Ukrayna’ya yonelik, kitlesel protesto eylemlerini
tesvik etmeye kadar varan tehditleri duyduk. Bu bir baski, bu bir santajdir”).
Vladimir Putin also stressed that Russia is ready to participate together with
Ukraine and EU in trilateral talks on trade and economic cooperation and called
these talks a test for European partners.
Deniz Berktay, the au thor of the ar ti cle “Is it the New Or ange Rev o lu tion?”
(“Yeni bir Turuncu Devrim mi?”)4, analysing the causes of the new Maidan, brings
to the forefront an economic aspect of the problem: after the 2008 world eco -
nomic crisis Ukraine experienced considerable deterioration in quality of life, so
political life did not interest Ukrainians as much as before. However, they kept
168 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 2
Ol’ha Maksymenko
1 The newspaper published an excerpt from the speech of the former Vice Prime Minister of
Ukraine Yurii Boiko in order to confirm that idea.
2 A quote from the news published on the web site of the Voice of Russia.
3 The meeting was held in St. Petersburg on November 22, 2013.
4 The article published in the Cumhuriyet newspaper on 8 December, 2013.
cherishing hopes for “a better European future”, believing that joining the EU
would put an end to long-lasting economic hardships. Therefore, Ukraine’s sharp
turn on the eve of the Eastern Partnership Summit meant for most of them
collapse of all hopes and expectations.
In the 2004 pres i den tial cam paign, Viktor Yanukovych was an an tag o nist to
pro-West ern (“or ange”) forces and so pre vented, with out suc cess, their com ing to
power. How ever, he man aged to win the pres i dency in 2010. Ana lys ing the fac tors
that could help him gain vic tory, the au thor draws the reader’s at ten tion to po lit i -
cal quar rels, which of ten oc curred within the rul ing co ali tion af ter the Or ange
Rev o lu tion and even tu ally led to po lit i cal in sta bil ity. Be sides, as a re sult of the
2008 global eco nomic cri sis, many Ukrai ni ans suf fered a con sid er able de cline in
liv ing stan dards. Those were the rea sons why they lost in ter est in pol i tics at all.
Even vot ers from West ern Ukraine, who never liked Yanu kovych any way, seemed
to rec on cile them selves to the ex ist ing state of af fairs. “Come what may,” they said.
So, nei ther the ar rest and im pris on ment of the for mer prime min is ter Yuliia
Tymoshenko nor other dra matic events were able to make such a large num ber of
peo ple come out to the streets. But once Ukraine’s econ omy slumped, sup port for
the rul ing party de creased a lot. Not with stand ing all these dif fi cul ties, both the
party of power and the op po si tion kept talk ing about a prom is ing fu ture for
Ukraine as a po ten tial EU can di date, de scrib ing the “Eu ro pean choice” as a pan a -
cea for Ukraine’s ills (her derde deva). But once Ukraine stepped back from the de -
clared po lit i cal line, thou sands of peo ple took to the streets. Thus, the reins of
Ukraine’s do mes tic pol icy fell into Brussels’ hands.
In the au thor’s view, the fur ther course of events de pends mainly on ex ter nal
forces: “Those who or gan ised the Or ange Rev o lu tion could achieve their aims,
be cause west ern coun tries overtly sup ported the Ukrai nian op po si tion. The
same is true for to day’s pro tests. Whether they will con tinue or sub side de pends
more on the out come of ne go ti a tions be tween Kyiv and Brussels sec tor (or
rather, be tween Kyiv, Brussels and Mos cow) than on Kyiv it self”.
“Why both the West and Rus sia are so in ter ested in Ukraine?” asks Murat
Cakir, a col um nist of the “Ozgur Gundem” news pa per (the ar ti cle un der this ti tle
ap peared on Feb ru ary 1, 2014). First of all, Ukrai nian sea ports Odesa and
Sevastopol are of great im por tance to Rus sia; the lat ter, more over, is a stra te gi -
cally im por tant base for Rus sia’s na val fleet. How ever, Ukraine is at trac tive to
the Eu ro pean Un ion too, be cause of be ing a tran sit coun try: 80% of pe tro leum
and nat u ral gas, trans ported from Rus sia and Cen tral Asia to Eu rope, passes
through Ukraine’s pipe line net work. Be sides, Ukraine is rich in nat u ral re -
sources. There are about 109 bil lion tons of coal and nat u ral gas in Donbas. East -
ern Ukraine, whose pop u la tion con sists mainly of eth nic Rus sians, is a huge gra -
nary. In fact, Ukraine is the world’s third big gest ce real ex porter (af ter the USA
and all EU coun tries put to gether). Some big ag ri cul tural cor po ra tions and food
com pa nies such as Monsanto, Cargill and Kraft Foods took a keen in ter est in
Ukraine long ago. Be sides, iron ore, gran ite, graph ite and salt de pos its have al -
ways been arous ing the ap pe tites of Eu ro pean steel man u fac tur ers, por ce lain
com pa nies and chem i cal firms. So, this in for ma tion is suf fi cient for un der stand -
ing why Ukraine evokes such a strong in ter est.
The au thor also emphasises that or di nary Ukrai ni ans are ex pe ri enc ing im -
pov er ish ment and so cial in jus tice, which have reached their peak (“Halkin yok -
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 2 169
Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media
sullasmasi ve adaletsizlik had safhada”). Of course, it was quite nat u ral that peo -
ple turned out on the streets to de mand de moc racy, so cial jus tice and civil lib er -
ties. How ever, one can hardly say that the ma jor ity of those who came to Maidan
rep re sented a real “peo ple’s” op po si tion (“gercek bir halk muhalefeti”). The au -
thor ar gues that there were rep re sen ta tives of ul tra-na tion al ist and fas cist par -
ties, who only made a lot of noise and thus di verted at ten tion from the peo ple’s
just de mands (“Asiri milliyetci ve fasist partilerin cikarttiklari gurultu, halkin hakli
taleplerinin ustunu ortuyor”). The cur rent sit u a tion plays into the West’s hands
since the lat ter is striv ing for “re gime change” in Ukraine (“Ve bu durum, “rejim
degisikligi” pesinde olan Bati’nin isine geliyor”). Even tu ally, Ukrai ni ans be come
vic tims of the war of in ter ests be ing waged be tween the ma jor im pe ri al ist forces
(“Sonucta Ukraynalilar emperyalist guclerin cikar savaslarina kurban ediliyor”).
Murat Cakir’s an other ar ti cle “Ukraine as the Epi centre of Inter-im pe ri al ist
Con tra dic tions” (“Emperyalist celiskiler odagi Ukrayna”) fo cuses at ten tion on a
se ri ous con flict be tween the USA and the Eu ro pean Un ion (es pe cially Ger -
many). Prov ing this, the au thor cites a frag ment of the leaked phone con ver sa -
tion be tween Vic to ria Nuland, the As sis tant Sec re tary of State for Eu ro pean and
Eur asian Af fairs at the U.S. De part ment of State, and Geoffrey Pyatt, the United
States Am bas sa dor to Ukraine, in which Ms Nuland ex pressed the hope that the
UN will help the United States to “teach EU a les son”.
A re porter of the in de pend ent on line news pa per T24 (who writes un der the
pen name Ex Li bris) calls the Euromaidan events “man i fes ta tion of na tion al ists”
(‘milliyetci’ bir tezahur), hap pened as a re sult of Ukrai ni ans’ long ing to get rid of
the Rus sian rule. The ar ti cle be gins with the words: “Any one who does not jump
loves Rus sians” (“Ziplamayan herkes Ruslari seviyor”). The word “na tion al ist” is
put in in verted com mas. “Ukrai ni ans, who are con sid ered the poor est na tion in
Eu rope af ter Kosovans and Moldovans, ended up de cid ing whether to be come
Eu ro pe ans or to be like sheep led by Mos cow” (“Halen Avrupa’nin, Kosovalilar ve
Moldavlardan sonra en fa kir halki sayilan Ukraynalilar, Moskova tarafindan
koyun misali gudulmek ile Avrupalilasmak arasinda bir tercihle karsi karsiyalar”),
notes the re porter. She catches sight of plac ards de pict ing a por trait of Yanu ko -
vych to gether with Sta lin and Hit ler, thus sym bol is ing “the old sys tem” (“eski
duzen”) — in other words, Rus sia’s age-old he ge mony over Ukraine, which
Ukrai ni ans want to get rid of. Mean while, the au thor seems to be sur prised by the
fact that ad her ents of Eu ro pean in te gra tion (she thinks that Tymoshenko’s
sympathisers are among them too) stand on the same side of the bar ri cades as the
far-right “Svoboda” (“Free dom”), which has got many fas cist-like fea tures (“fa -
si zan cizgiler”). “There are quite a few rough-look ing, brawny guys in Maidan,
who are stroll ing through the pro test camp, hold ing chain whips and cob ble -
stones in their hands”, says the au thor.
The ar ti cle “Gezi’s Fol low ers in Maidan” (“Gezi’ye ozenen cocuklar May -
dan’da”), pub lished on De cem ber 15, 2013, on the Hurriyet’s web site, also pays
spe cial at ten tion to the pro test ers’ char ac ter is tics, com par ing them to Gezi’s par -
tic i pants. The au thor notes that most pro test ers in Is tan bul’s Gezi Park could
speak Eng lish (or even mul ti ple lan guages) flu ently while only few of Maidan’s
par tic i pants (de spite the fact that the ma jor ity of them were young peo ple) spoke
good Eng lish. In gen eral, their knowl edge of Eng lish was quite poor. The pro test ers
could hardly tell what they were ex pect ing from EU in te gra tion. “We want to live
170 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 2
Ol’ha Maksymenko
a better life, we want the same free dom as Eu ro pe ans have” was all they were able to
say (“Gencler sadece “Daha iyi yasamak istiyoruz, Avrupa’daki gibi ozgur luk istiy -
oruz.” diyorlar). How ever, the au thor takes a great deal of pride in Ukraine, who,
like Tur key, “has de mol ished the wall of fear” (“korku duvarini yikti”).
Mustafa Yalciner, the au thor of the ar ti cle “Is tan bul — Gezi, Kiev — Mai -
dan…”, also makes a com par i son be tween the events which took place in Kyiv’s
Maidan and in Taksim Gezi Park. The gov ern ment’s con tro ver sial ren o va tion
plan for the city cen tre, widely known as the “Taksim pedestrianisation pro ject”
(along with build ing a new shop ping mall), seemed to be the main cause of the
pro tests in Gezi Park. Peo ple gath ered there to stop de vel op ers from cut ting
down trees in the park, as it was the only green area in that dis trict. How ever,
there were deeper causes un der ly ing the Gezi Park pro tests. First of all, Istan -
bullites were com plain ing about in creas ingly au to cratic style of Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, who held the of fice of the Prime Min is ter of Tur key then. Be sides, not a
few peo ple were con cerned about Islamisation of Tur key, which has been a sec u -
lar state since 1928, due to Ataturk’s po lit i cal re forms. So, the gov ern ment’s en -
croach ment on Tur key’s sec u lar ism was per ceived rather neg a tively, es pe cially
by those who shared sec u lar views.
The pro test wave in Taksim Square be gan on 28 May, 2013, and con tin ued
un til the end of Au gust, spread ing to other Is tan bul’s dis tricts and then to al most
all ma jor Tur key’s cit ies. Try ing to de mol ish the pro tester camp, the po lice used
tear gas and wa ter can nons against the ac tiv ists.
“Well, we know Gezi, as we were not far from it. We have gone through it”,
emphasises the au thor. “The gov ern ment must re sign! Tayyip must re sign!” de -
manded the pro test ers. Then he adds, “Well, what re ally made us come there to
pro test? Love for the en vi ron ment. Trees. Yes, that was true!.. But the real rea son
was the Pres i dent’s po si tion ‘I de cide ev ery thing my self’; the fact that he ig nored
the thoughts and feel ings of the city in hab it ants, whom he called “the rab ble”
(ayak takimi)... So, there was an out burst of dem o cratic an ger” (“Demokratik ofke
buradan patladi”).
Thus, Turks bit terly re sented the fact that the prime min is ter made de ci sions
with out any re gard for or di nary peo ple’s opin ions while Ukrai ni ans wanted to
get rid of Rus sia’s con trol and turn to wards the West; in other words, Ukraine’s
geopolitical re align ment was brought to the fore front. In the au thor’s opin ion,
“or di nary peo ple” were the main driv ing force be hind the Gezi Park pro tests
while Euromaidan came into be ing due to pro-EU Ukrai ni ans and sup port ers of
the for mer prime min is ter Yuliia Tymoshenko.
The Hurriyet news pa per also fo cuses on some Maidan’s key fig ures like eth -
no-pop singer Ruslana, who threat ened to burn her self alive un less the gov ern -
ment meets pro test ers’ de mands. The ar ti cle ap peared on 7 De cem ber, 2013 —
just a week af ter a spe cial po lice unit “Berkut” had vi o lently dis persed pro test ers
and torn down their camp.
Berkut’s as sault on the pro tester camp ini ti ated the next phase of Euro -
maidan, which was de scribed in de tail by Yunus Erdogdu, a news re porter of the
Cihan agency, in the ar ti cle “Po lice In ter fer ence in Ukrai nian Euromaidan”
(“Ukrayna’da Euro Meydan’a polis mudahalesi”). An other ar ti cle by the same au -
thor “Euromaidan Must Go On Un til the Year 2015” (“Meydan 2015 yilina kadar
devam etmeli”) is also worth men tion ing. The au thor cites an ex cerpt from Arsenii
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2016, 2 171
Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Turkish Media
Yatseniuk’s1 speech in Maidan. From the politician’s viewpoint, the protest
actions in Euromaidan must continue until 2015, that is to say until the year of
the next presidential election in Ukraine: “We have a whole year to prepare for
the election. Hundreds of people from Maidan will work as election observers;
millions of voters will go to the poll and defend Ukrainians’ choice on election
night... The actions taking place in the city centre are to be continued, as they are
a symbol of freedom in Ukraine. We will win only when these actions engulf
Ukraine from the West to the East” (“Bir senemiz var secimlere hazirlanmak icin.
Meydandaki yuzlerce insan secimde komisyonlarda, gozlemciler olarak calismali ve
oy sayiminin yapilacagi gece milyonlarca secmen secim bolgelerine gidip Ukray -
nalilarin secimini korumali... Kiev’in merkezindeki eylemler Ukrayna’da ozgurlugun
bir sembolu olarak kalmaya devam etmeli. Yalniz bu eylemler ne zaman tum
Ukrayna’yi, Bati’dan ve Dogu’ya kadar kusatirsa biz o zaman kazanacagiz”).
Un for tu nately, Ukrai ni ans have won at the cost of many lives. “The first
Maidan ended with out ca su al ties, whereas about 100 peo ple were killed in the
sec ond one”, notes Deniz Berktay in the ar ti cle en ti tled “Dis cus sions about a
New Rev o lu tion in Ukraine” (“Ukrayna’da ‘yeni devrim’ tartismalari”).
How ever, the “life af ter Maidan” turned out to be even cru el ler than the
Maidan re al ity. The armed con flict in Donbas, which broke out in the spring of
2014, has not been solved yet. The death toll sur passes 10,000, and the num ber of
dis placed peo ple is in creas ing too. More over, the num ber of crip pled fates is in -
cal cu la ble. Ideo log i cal di ver gences still con tinue to split the so ci ety in two. And
it stands to rea son that such a strong polar is ation af fects many Ukrai nian fam i -
lies. Yet there re mains a hope that Ukrai ni ans, as a well-known so ci ol o gist
Yevhen Golovakha once aptly noted, will be sen si ble enough “to stop mov ing to -
wards be fore the abyss”.
Need less to say, me dia play an ex tremely im por tant role in so ci ety if they are
a source of im par tial and re li able in for ma tion, free from emo tional bi ases; oth er -
wise, they will cre ate a dis torted view of re al ity. Be ing able to crit i cally ana lyse all
the in for ma tion re ceived from news pa pers, TV or from the Internet, to com pare
and con trast dif fer ent points of view, is also of great im por tance. We should not
for get the words of Malcolm X, an Amer i can hu man rights ac tiv ist: “If you are not
care ful, the news pa pers will have you hat ing the peo ple who are be ing op pressed,
and lov ing the peo ple who are do ing the op press ing”.
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