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Communicating Turkish-Islamic identity in the aftermath of the Gaza flotilla raid: Who is the “us” in “us” versus “them”?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Lemi Baruh  and
Mihaela Popescu
Lemi Baruh
Affiliation:
Koç University, Department of Media and Visual Arts, Rumelifeneri Yolu, 34450, Sariyer-İstanbul, Turkey, lbaruh@ku.edu.tr
Mihaela Popescu
Affiliation:
California State University, San Bernardino, Department of Communication Studies, 5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407-2397, USA, popescum@csusb.edu
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Abstract

On May 31,2010, Israeli Defense Forces raided the ship Mavi Marmara, part of a six-vessel flotilla aiming to break the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and to deliver supplies to Gaza. Using comments posted on Turkish online discussion forums in the aftermath of the raid that resulted in the death of nine passengers, this article analyzes how the incident was appropriated to negotiate between Turkishness and Islam as two alternative, yet coinciding forms of collective identity. Particularly, the article will compare different discursive strategies that were utilized in “general-interest” and “Islamic-leaning” online discussion groups. A deductive thematic analysis of 585 posts in general-interest and Islamic-leaning forums found significant differences in how metaphors of the body—blood, sacrifice, and martyrdom—as well as in-group/out-group comparisons were used in order to support a territorial-based nationalism versus a religion-based identity. The analysis also discusses the rhetoric that enabled discussants in general-interest forums to negotiate the tensions between the two collective identities.

Keywords

Mavi Marmaracollective identityidentity and belongingTurkish-Islamic identitynationalism
Type
Research Article
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 45: Special Issue on Turkishness and Its Discontents , Fall 2011 , pp. 75 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2011

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