1

Draft for Codebook POLS 224

President of Türkiye’s Responses to the Palestine-Israel War from

7 October 2023 to 27 March 2024

Ebubekir SOYLU / Department of Sociology

Ümmühan Gülsüm ARMUTÇU / Department of Political Science

and International Relations

Gamze KAPAR / Department of Sociology

Lütfiye ULUŞAHİN / Department of Psychology

Yunus YEŞİL / Department of Sociology

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction………………………..page 3

2. Data Collection Methods…………..page 6

3. Variables in the dataset…………….page 7

4. Definition of variables……………..page 8

5. Notes and references……………….page 15

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INTRODUCTION

The struggle between Israel and Palestine is a process that has been going on for years.

The process of tension that increased after Israel occupied Palestinian lands and established a

state in 1948, and it continues until today. Although there is an area under the control of the

Palestinian Government which is led by the leader of Al-Fatah, Israel also controls this region

militarily and politically. Only the HAMAS administration controls the city of Gaza, which is

close to the Egyptian border. Conflicts have been occurring between HAMAS and Israel since

2006 (Tessler, 2009). The most violent and long-lasting of these conflicts occurred as a result

of the movement initiated by HAMAS on October 7. As a result of this operation, known as

the Al-Aqsa Flood, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades carried out a large-scale operation in

the southern settlements of Israel. It was reported that this operation was carried out against

the increasing radical settler intervention in other Palestinian areas, especially in the Al-Aqsa

Mosque. The infiltration of HAMAS soldiers into Israel by land and air was followed by

rockets fired from Gaza. Thereupon, Israel responded with a severe air attack, and this

increased the impact of the war. The course of the war, which has been ongoing since October

7, has shifted from Israeli settlements to Gaza territory. Israel, with its serious military force

from air and land, hit HAMAS targets in Gaza, as well as settlements including hospitals,

schools, houses, refugee camps, and many other areas, and they have caused serious civilian

deaths since October 7.1

As a result of the attacks that have continued for more than 170 days, Israel killed 32

thousand 490 Palestinians and injured 74 thousand 889 of them. Also, many of them forcibly

move to the southern part of Gaza which is close to the Egyptian border, the Rafah. In

addition to the attacks, Israel's obstruction of aid activities caused the war to turn into a

humanitarian crisis. It is reported that Gazans, who have access to very limited humanitarian

1
https://www.britannica.com/event/Israel-Hamas-War
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aid through border gates, struggle with hunger and many health problems. Nevertheless, Israel

has increased its attacks on hospitals and healthcare professionals in the region, making it

difficult for Palestinians to access limited healthcare facilities.2

The crimes committed by Israel, especially against civilians, had serious repercussions

in the international community. While many states condemned Israel's attacks, the South

African took action and complained about Israel to the International Court of Justice. During

this process, they wanted to be involved in the litigation process in some other countries such

as Belgium and Spain. Turkiye, on the other hand, welcomed this step taken by South Africa

and showed its intention to be involved in the process. In addition, almost all political parties

in Turkiye have declared that the Israeli occupation should end immediately and that

Palestinians should have access to needs such as food, clean water, health supplies and

electricity as soon as possible. In addition, the people of Turkiye have been showing their

support for the Palestinians by protesting Israel, its political and economic supporters, and

local institutions and individuals working with Israel, with rallies held in the streets and

squares and boycotts since October 7.3

The Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have also stated that

they stand by the Palestinians in their statements since October 7. Erdoğan, who frequently

touched upon Israel's inhumane interventions, underlined the need for an immediate ceasefire.

Although it is clear that Erdoğan has a pro-Palestinian attitude, it is necessary to reveal how

the discourses he used in the almost 6-month period were shaped, how Turkish foreign policy

was produced with these discourses and how it was received in Turkish society. Undoubtedly,

Erdogan is one of the most important figures in Turkish political history. His experience in

power for more than 20 years, his approach to regional events and especially his reactions

2
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/26/israels-war-on-gaza-live-world-welcomes-un-ceasefire-reso
lution
3
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/turkiye-huge-protest-in-istanbul-against-israels-ongoing-assault-on-besieg
ed-gaza/3078886
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such as 'red line' and 'one minute' on the Palestine issue position him at the center in this

context. Within the scope of this study, Erdoğan's attitude, especially after October 7, and the

discursive language he developed to overcome this crisis will be analyzed, taking into account

his past position. Thus, the position taken by Erdoğan and the Turkish foreign policy drawn

by Erdoğan on the Palestine issue will be revealed more clearly. The research is based on

discourse analysis of the news containing Erdoğan's speeches by finding them through the

website GALE. By focusing especially on the concepts that are frequently repeated in the

speeches, it is aimed to show what these concepts mean in Turkey-Palestine relations and how

they are reflected in the violent incidents that have occurred especially since October 7.
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DATA COLLECTION METHODS

This research is looking at the President of Türkiye’s Responses to the Palestine-Israel

War from 7 October 2023 to 27 March 2024 by specifically emphasizing President Recep

Tayyip’s responses and approach to the Palestine-Israel War through national and most

international news. Accordingly, his speech in the news is taken as the main source of analysis

and the Gale Research Complete Database is decided to be used for that purpose. The

database was accessed using the library of Ibn Haldun University.

After subscription and login processing, the keyword searched on the Gale Database is

determined as “Erdogan and Palestine or Israel or Gaza”. This keyword is chosen due to

obtain the most relevant and comprehensive news on the database. Furthermore, within the

time interval of 7 October to 27 March, 347,726 news was presented on the database.

Then the presented data is narrowed by filtering the results within the keyword of

“Erdogan”. Accordingly, the most relevant 4,632 news involving Erdogan’s response to the

Palestine-Israel War was obtained. Furthermore, since this is a group project, the months and

news are divided among the group members by considering the equal number of news of

analysis. News from 7 October 2023 to 31 October 2023 is assigned to Ebubekir Soylu, 1

November 2023 to 30 November 2023 is assigned to Yunus Yeşil, 1 December 2023 to 31

December 2023 assigned to Gamze Kapar, 1 January 2024 to 31 January assigned to Lütfiye

Uluşahin, and 1 January 2024 to 27 March 2024 assigned to Ümmühan Gülsüm Armutçu.

When the number of news is not equal in the divided months, all members of the group agree

to share the news of the group member who has more news than others.
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VARIABLES IN DATASET

All the variables are derived from the news that was peer-reviewed by the group members.

Each group member has reviewed at least 30 pieces of news from their assigned time interval.

Accordingly, the variables are selected based on their relevance to the topic, frequency of

presence in the news, and preliminary analysis of the news from each month within the

selected time interval.

Variable Short Variable Long

humaid Humanitarian Aid
peace Peace
occupation Occupation
hamas Approach to Hamas (resistance fighter, political party,
not a terrorist)
IsraelPalestine Approach to Israel-Palestine War (Massacre, War,
Conflict, Attack)
humcrime Humanitarian Crime
warcrime War Crime
Netanyahu Approach to Netanyahu (wannabe Hitler, Fuhrer,
Nazi, Butcher of Gaza, baby killer)
ceasefire Ceasefire
genocide Genocide
conresol Conflict resolution: two-state solution
UN UN (United Nations)
punish Punishment (trial, collective punishment, international
initiative-consensus)
approachIsrael Approach to Israel (murderer, thief, Barbar, fascist)
AccusWest West: Spoiled child,
AccusUsa USA
humancrisis Humanitarian Crisis
oppression Oppression
location place
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DEFINITION OF VARIABLES
peace: The 'peace' variable represents Erdoğan's call for the war between Israel and Palestine
to end, for Israel to stop the genocide it initiated against Palestine, and as a result, for the
beginning of a two-state peace period. News that did not mention peace was coded as "0", and
news that mentioned it was coded as "1".
Example: Turkiye and Albania are two members of the NATO alliance who play a role in
maintaining peace and stability in the Balkans region, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan on Thursday. (Right Vision Media, 2024)

occupation: In Erdoğan's eyes, the variable 'occupation' represents Israel's hegemony over
Palestinian lands since 1948, oppressing the Palestinian people in these lands and alienating
them from their lands. News that did not mention the occupation was coded as "0", and news
that mentioned it was coded as "1".
Example: The Turkish leader, on his first visit to Egypt in more than 10 years, denounced
Netanyahu's "occupation, destruction and massacres". (Digital Journal, 2024)

hamas: The 'Hamas' variable is the military units of the Palestinian people against Israel.
Although it is considered a terrorist organization by many European states, it is considered a
political group or insurgents by Erdoğan. This variable is categorized according to the results
obtained from the news as follows;

1. resistance fighter
Example: … "will never hesitate because someone is upset about declaring that members of
the Hamas movement are resistance fighters seeking to protect their homeland and their
lives." (Knowledge Bylanes, 2023)

2. political party
Example: “The Turkish President said: 'Hamas is a political party that participated in the
elections in Palestine and won, but after it won the elections, you took away its rights. Israel
and the United States took away its rights. Let us see these facts. Despite this, there are still
people who do not know or understand that Hamas is a political party.” (Knowledge Bylanes,
2023)
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3. not a terrorist
Example: "We need to focus on the two-state solution...The exclusion of Hamas or destruction
of Hamas is not a realistic scenario," Erdogan said during the interview, adding that he will
not define Hamas as a terrorist organization. (SyndiGate Media Inc., 2023)

IsraelPalestine: Although it is known that the variable 'Israel and Palestine' represents the
war that started after the 'Aqsa Flood' launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023,
Erdoğan also describes this situation as the hegemony established by Israel over Palestine
from 1948 to the present.

1. Massacre
a. Example: The Turkish leader, on his first visit to Egypt in more than 10 years,
denounced Netanyahu's "occupation, destruction and massacres". (Digital
Journal, 2024)

2. War
Example: “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a speech on human rights Saturday
to accuse the West of “barbarism” for its stance on the Israel-Hamas war and what he alleged
was its toleration of Islamophobia.” (Press Association, Inc., 2023)

3. Conflict
Example: “Mr. Erdogan cited the lack of recognition of an independent Palestinian state as
the root cause of the current crisis and called for the recognition of Palestine by Israel to
de-escalate the conflict.” (HT Digital Streams Ltd., 2024)

4. Attack
Example: “The Turkish President cited Gaza as an example of the consequences of leaving
pressing issues unresolved, stressing that the Palestinian issue dates to before the October 7
attack.”(SyndiGate Media Inc., 2024)

humcrime: The 'Humanity crime’ variable is defined by Erdoğan as the inhumane acts,
massacres and genocide that Israel initiated on innocent people after October 7, 2024,
exceeding the dimensions of war. News that did not mention humanitarian crime was coded as
"0", and news that mentioned it was coded as "1".
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Example: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday criticized the UN and
Western countries for "just watching the humanitarian crimes" committed by Israel in Gaza
for the last 140 days. (Right Vision Media, 2024)

warcrime: The variable 'war crime' represents Israel's actions against Palestine that do not
comply with the ethics of war in the war that started after October 7. At this point, this
variable is evaluated by Erdoğan as situations such as killing hostages and targeting innocent
non-military people. News that did not mention war crime was coded as "0", and news that
mentioned it was coded as "1".

Example: "We are making intensive efforts to ensure that Israel's human rights abuses and
war crimes are not overlooked on the international stage," Erdogan said, addressing the 5th
General Assembly of the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum via video message in Istanbul
(Knowledge Bylanes, 2024)

Netanyahu: This variable describes how Erdogan describes Netanyahu. In this context, the
subheadings are as follows:

1. Nazi (Hitler, Fuhrer):

2. Butcher of Gaza

3. baby killer “unconditional support to kill babies”

ceasefire: The 'ceasefire' variable is the call made by Erdoğan to end the war between Israel
and Palestine and the subsequent attacks on Israel. News that did not mention ceasefire was
coded as "0", and news that mentioned it was coded as "1".
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genocide: Genocide is taken into consideration in terms of characterizing the importance and
seriousness of the war from the perspective of ethnicity and race. News that did not mention
genocide was coded as "0", and news that mentioned it was coded as "1".

conresol: Conresol is referring to conflict resolution. By talking about conflict resolution

from different perspectives, he states that this is a topic that should be taken seriously. News
that did not mention conflict resolution was coded as "0", and news that mentioned it was
coded as "1".

UN: It is an organization that was frequently called to duty by Erdoğan due to the fact that
the institution, which was established for the purpose of world peace, remained silent and had
no impact during the Israel-Palestine conflict. News that did not mention UN (United
Nations) was coded as "0", and news that mentioned it was coded as "1".

Punish: It is Erdoğan's call on what kind of embargo and punishment Israel should remain
against by countries in the world arena. The types are as follows.
1. trial: “netenyahu should be tried forgenocide, crimes against humanity, and war
crimes”
2. collective punishment:
3. international initiative-consensus:
4.
Humaid: "Humanitarian aid" is the variable that represents the supplies that Erdoğan said

should be sent to the Palestinian people who had deficiencies in water, food, shelter and

medicine in that region during the Israel-Palestine war.

Example: “It is our priority to establish a cease-fire as soon as possible to deliver

humanitarian aid to Gaza without any obstacles,” he said. (Anadolu Agency, 2024)
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ApproachIsrael: "Approach to Israel '' refers to the stance, statement and approach adopted

by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the Palestine-Israeli War from October 7, 2023 to

March 27. This variable is categorized according to the results obtained from the news as

follows:

1. Murderer: "Traitors will pay, Israel will pay. Israel, murderer, out of Palestine.”

(ContentEngine Noticias Financieras (English), 2024)

2. Thief: "Israel is not only a murderer but also a thief," said Erdogan (Calli, 2023)

3. Barbar: "following Israel's barbarism with deep concern," saying he was referring to

"dastardly barbarism that targets civilians waiting in line for aid." (Anadolu Agency,

2024)

4. Fascist: “The Israeli government represents a fascist mentality, aiming to destroy

various groups, including Jews…” (Anadolu Agency, 2024)

5. Terrorist: “…Israel, the rulers of this 'terrorist state' would not have acted with such

cruelty and recklessness.”(Iraq News Gazette, 2023)

AccusWest: The "Accusing the West" variable involves examining whether and how Erdogan

blamed Western countries for the Palestinian-Israeli war during the specified period. Here, the

West is addressed, especially countries in Europe. News that did not mention the West was

coded as "0", and news that mentioned it was coded as "1".

Example: “It is shame that Western countries, which always voice for human rights,

and freedoms, remain silent on the massacre in Palestine.” (Anadolu Agency, 2023)

AccusUsa: The “Accusing the USA” variable includes data on Erdogan's reaction to the

USA's stance on the ongoing war and whether he blames the USA. The reason why it is

discussed separately with Western countries is that when Erdoğan's speeches are examined, he
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generally criticizes the USA separately. News that did not mention the US was coded as "0",

and news that mentioned it was coded as "1".

Example: “...but not with America because the USA stands with Israel. … From now

on, humanity won’t think the USA supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

(Yerepouni Daily News, 2023)

humancrisis: While defining the "humanitarian crisis" variable, it includes Erdoğan's

statements about the impact of the Palestine-Israeli war on the civilian population, especially

in terms of their access to needs such as food, water and shelter. News that did not mention a

humanitarian crisis was coded as "0", and news that did mention a humanitarian crisis was

coded as "1".

Example: "The continuing Israeli bombings of Gaza, which intensified last night, have

once again targeted women, children and innocent civilians, aggravating the humanitarian

crisis. (United News of India (UNI), 2023)

Oppression: In the context of the Palestine-Israeli war, the variable “oppression” refers to

Israel's policies and oppression against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories, seen

through systematic violations of their freedoms and basic human rights. In this variable, news

in which Erdoğan did not mention Israeli oppression was coded as "0" and news in which he

mentioned Israeli oppression was coded as "1".

Example: "The more the Israeli administration escalates its oppression, the heavier the

price it will pay," (Calli, 2023)

Location: “Location” is the variable that indicates where Erdoğan made his speech about the

Israel-Palestine war.
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Examples: TRT World Forum 2023 in Istanbul, COP28 UN climate summit in Dubai,

Cabinet meeting in the capital Ankara, World Human Rights Day event in Istanbul,

Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)...

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NOTES

While researching the news, we realized that the lawsuit filed by South America against Israel

on January 29, 2024, did not find the expected importance and place in Erdogan's speeches.

We believe that the reason for this is that the majority of the news in the Gale database

belongs to international news agencies. We know that Turkish news agencies and sources

congratulate South Africa's lawsuit and share Erdogan's speeches on this issue. Based on this

situation, as a suggestion for future studies, it may be recommended to consider domestic and

foreign sources equally.

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Calli, M. E. (2023, December 4). Netanyahu, 'butcher of Gaza,' should be tried for 'war

crimes': Turkish President Erdogan. Anadolu Agency, p. NA. Gale OneFile: News,

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ac. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Calli, M. E. (2023, December 6). Israel to be held accountable for its oppression of

Palestinians since WWII: Turkish President Erdogan. Anadolu Agency, NA.

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okmark-STND&xid=ca8d7bcf

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okmark-STND&xid=215be43e
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Erdogan: Israel will be held accountable for every persecution it has practiced in Palestine,

and I do not know where Netanyahu will flee to then. (2023, December 6). Iraq News

Gazette, NA.

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okmark-STND&xid=ed79fbdb

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39b4. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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ongoing-assault-on-besieged-gaza/3078886

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bookmark-STND&xid=1f9ff3e7

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bookmark-STND&xid=305fc603

"Trkiye's President Erdogan urges world spotlight on Israel's war crimes." Anadolu Agency

Yes, 9 Feb. 2024, p. NA. Gale OneFile: News,

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e2e1. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Turkey's Erdogan says chance for peace in Gaza conflict lost for now. (2023, December 2).

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"Turkish President Erdogan at World Governments Summit in Dubai calls for global unity as

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