The Solution Process and the Media

“A critical leg of the 2013 Solution Process is the media as it has been confirmed by the past experiences”. We do not have sufficient data to literally confirm this widespread conviction. On the contrary, we know that one of the least trusted institutions in Turkey is the media, and its attempts to play the “evil man” in similar processes have always been futile. It is not possible to say that the Turkish mainstream media, which directly contributed to the deepening of the Kurdish question, is yet freed of its old habits.

We would have a better idea on the frequency and depth of possible ill-practices, if it is considered that the biggest newspapers of Turkey notably resemble the average tabloids in terms of content and quality. If ideological motivations are added on top of this quality issue, we should realize that we are facing a serious problem here. In fact, masses became aware of the 2013 solution process owing to a media provocation. It should be calculated from now on that the likelihood of the media’s causing similar provocations is higher than the likelihood of its positive contributions to the process. The data in hand and past experiences are sufficient for us to see how far the Turkish mainstream media can go. It is useful to look at the data first. In the mainstream media or in the top five dailies (in terms of circulation), there are many names who openly stand against the process, who satirize the developments in a sleazy way and who fail to overcome cynicism. Secondly, the media mostly puts all the burden –in either positive or negative sense – of the process on the government in the big business-government relations. Thirdly, to cover up its resistance against the process, the media exerts efforts to legitimize its opposition under the pretense of presenting “different voices”. What is meant here by the “different voices” is not about making heard the opposition parties’ objections to the process. This would of course be absurd to even argue against. The fourth is, when it fails to make descent stories, the media’s morbid engagement in sensational news to compete with its rivals. Right after the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan’s message was read, the website of the biggest daily used the headline, “He did not say, lay down the arms!” Yet, another daily was published with the headline: “He is in the Service of His State”.

THE NEW TURKEY, THE OLD MEDIA

It is impossible for the media to recover from its aforementioned illnesses in the middle-run. The Turkish mainstream media, which was a natural component in policy-creation-dictation in Turkey, has disguised from the masses for years the reasons and roots of the issue that is being tried to be resolved today. It does not seem possible for the media to go through a quick transformation as of today.

The mainstream media resting on the Kemalist founding axis has openly and willingly taken side and fueled for years the brawl on “secularism” and “separatism” which it itself had defined. We ask the media today to support efforts for alleviating the fear of “separatism” by the hands of the actor, to whom it considers it lost the brawl on “secularism” to. The world of this old-Turkey-media is far away from being able to carry this burden.

On the other hand, the old Turkey’s only actor who has changed neither radically nor genuinely, nor has even discussed the change, is the Turkish mainstream media. Just for this reason, it has become the most buffeted actor in the process of consolidation of the new Turkey, and is destined to be torn further apart in the middle-run. The reason is both the economy-politics of the sector and the mainstream media’s – as a worn down actor – failure to stop its dwindle as long as it cannot digest the new Turkey. If the mainstream media conside