A thematic analysis of YouTube comments on 2020 Turkish–Greek border crisis: The case of Euronews

Authors : Apak Kerem Altintop, Melek Aylin Özoflu, Yasin Özbey

Pages : 259-288

View : 15 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2023-04-01

Article Type : Research

Abstract :Following the heavy military losses in Idlib, Syria, Turkey opened its Greek border to European-bound asylum seekers and migrants on February 27th, 2020, paving the way for a political tension and border crisis between Turkey and the EU. This research investigates the anti-refugee and anti-immigrant discourses articulated within the comments on the YouTube channels of the official EU website Euronews both in English and Turkish communicating about the Turkish–Greek Border crisis that erupted in March 2020. To this end, it analyzes a large dataset of comments taken from the most interacted videos respectively on 15th May 2020 in English (V1) and 16th June 2020 in Turkish (V2). The number of comments is 2255 (C1) for the former, and 817 (C2) for the latter. The comments were analyzed through the qualitative data analysis software MAXQDA.2022. While the themes communicating about the crisis revolve around the debates of religion, national security and conceptualization of refugees and migrants within the C1, sending the refugees, negative features of the refugees and hate speech are prominent in the C2. The themes of social welfare and daily practice are prevalent in both C1 and C2. Consequently, refugees in C1 are mostly perceived in terms of security and/or economic considerations, while in C2 they are seen as people who benefit from social welfare but do not contribute to the state and society. In both C1 and C2, refugees are considered an economic burden and undesirable actors.
Keywords : AB, Türkiye, Mülteci, Göçmen, Tematik Analiz, 2020 Türk-Yunan Sınır Krizi