The Image of Russia in the Turkish Press: Imagology and Newspaper Discourse

The present study is dedicated to analyzing the formation of Russia's image in the Turkish press through the lens of imagology and comparative discourse analysis, covering the period from 2015 to 2025. Particular attention is paid to the influence of the ideological positions of media outlets and digital transformations on the modes of representing the country. Using the method of comparative analysis, materials from three Turkish newspapers with different editorial policies were examined: Sabah, Hrriyet, and Ulusal Gazetesi. The results demonstrate the absence of a unified or monolithic image of Russia. Sabah constructs a predominantly positive and pragmatic image of a strategic partner in energy, tourism, and leadership diplomacy. Hrriyet maintains a balanced and analytical approach, focusing on geopolitical risks and the balance of power. Ulusal Gazetesi portrays Russia as a key ally in a multipolar world, utilizing an anti-Western discourse and emphasizing Eurasian partnership. The digitalization of the media environment accelerates the pace of image formation, increases their standardization, and simultaneously makes them more fragile, rendering representations more dependent on ideological framing. The study confirms the active role of the media in constructing national images and contributes to the development of imagology and media discourse studies, underscoring the necessity of considering editorial policy and technological factors in the analysis of international representations. The scientific novelty of the research lies in its first systematic application of comparative discourse analysis to three key Turkish publications with opposing ideological stances. This approach made it possible to overcome the view prevalent in previous studies of Russia's image in Turkey as unified or monolithic, revealing its pronounced internal fragmentation and direct dependence on the political orientation of each media outlet. The conducted analysis proves that editorial policy is a decisive factor in constructing a national image, predetermining topic selection, tone, framing, and lexical strategies. Overall, the work confirms that national images in international relations are not a reflection of objective reality, but a product of active ideological and technological construction by media institutions in accordance with their internal and foreign policy objectives.