The article examines the Soviet press coverage of the Turkish government delegation’s official visit to the Soviet Union in July 1937. By using content analysis for studying the articles in the newspapers, the author comes to the conclusion that they contain both complementary and “required” materials. The articles examined covered both the trip itself and the bilateral relations between Ankara and Moscow, which, although presented in the press as “friendly”, were in fact in a state of gradual stagnation, especially after Turkey signed both the Montreux Convention in 1936 and the Saadabad Pact in 1937. The sonorous descriptions of Soviet-Turkish relations given by the Soviet journalists were supposed to create the illusion of a strong ties between two countries. Using such passages as “sincere and lasting friendship between the two countries”, the Soviet propaganda tried to maintain a positive narrative about the Turkish Republic despite the problems in relations between Ankara and Moscow.
Aleksander Lyulchak (Wed,) studied this question.