Oh No! Turkish Jews sing Spanish songs: A Discursive Analysis of a News Story in the 1930s Turkish Press

Abstract

By arguing that the Turkish press of the 1930s reproduced Turkish political discourse because most newspaper journalists, columnists, and editors were also members of the Turkish parliament, this article aims to shed light on the discursive construction of Turkish national identity in the Turkish press of the 1930s. The article analyses a news story, published in the Cumhuriyet newspaper on 18 July 1932, about the Turkish Jewish community’s attachment to Spanish music, language, and culture. The story problematizes the lack of Turkish language skills in the Turkish Jewish community because, in Turkey’s early republican years, all Turkish citizens were expected to speak Turkish, be fully committed to Turkish ethnocultural values, as well as to Turkish economic and political interests.