The cost of dissent: A case from Turkish politics with the examination of social media reactions

Date

2024-10-23

Author

Ersoy, Hilal
Özakay, Özgün
Karagenç, Kardelen

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In March 2021, Turkey announced withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, a treaty adopted by the Council of Europe that sets legal standards to protect women from gender-based and domestic violence. Subsequently, supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and members of some other right-wing parties requested the abolition of Law No. 6284 on Protection of the Family and the Prevention of Violence Against Women, which was prepared based on the principles of the Istanbul Convention. However, an unexpected reaction came from one of AKP’s parliamentary group deputy chairmans, Özlem Zengin. Right before the general elections in May 2023, she argued that the law should not be abolished and declared, "Law 6284 is our red line." Following Zengin’s statement, public discussions about her gained momentum among people from the ingroup (e.g., the supporters of AKP) and the outgroup (e.g., supporters of opposition parties). In this study, we aimed to identify the extent and the content of the criticisms made by both the ingroup and outgroup members online regarding Zengin’s statement. The data was obtained from the comment sections of several news videos on YouTube and the online forum called EkşiSözlük. Grounding on the theories of Social Identity and Social Categorization, we analyzed the data using reflexive thematic analysis approach. We conceptualized three themes: (i) perception of ideology inconsistency, (ii) exclusion from the ingroup, and (iii) the outgroup’s moral superiority. The present research implicated that both the ingroup and outgroup members perceived Zengin’s statement as inconsistent with her ideological stance. Criticisms made by the ingroup members demonstrated that she was dangerous and damaging to the cohesion of the ingroup. Outgroup members underlined that they will be the ones advocating for her rights after the election. Keywords:women’s rights, social identity, social categorization, reflexive thematic analysis.

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https://hdl.handle.net/11511/111865

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Conference / Seminar