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Explaining negative descriptions of Armenians in Turkish parliamentary speeches (1960–1980) via group position theory

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Türkay Salim Nefes at University of Oxford
Türkay Salim Nefes
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Abstract

This paper scrutinizes the role of Turkish politicians’ threat perception on negative descriptions of Armenians between 1960 and 1980. In so doing, it brings together the theoretical insights of group position theory with the scholarship on the perception of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey. Building on a comprehensive, mixed-method content analysis of Turkish parliamentary proceedings, it demonstrates that Turkish politicians are more likely to make negative comments about Armenians while debating about national security and foreign threats than when speaking about other topics. The paper concludes that perceived threats contribute to the negative descriptions of Armenians in Turkish politics.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Quality & Quantity (2021) 55:2237–2252
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01108-8
1 3
Explaining negative descriptions ofArmenians inTurkish
parliamentary speeches (1960–1980) viagroup position
theory
TürkaySalimNefes1,2
Accepted: 6 February 2021 / Published online: 19 February 2021
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature 2021
Abstract
This paper scrutinizes the role of Turkish politicians’ threat perception on negative descrip-
tions of Armenians between 1960 and 1980. In so doing, it brings together the theoretical
insights of group position theory with the scholarship on the perception of non-Muslim
minorities in Turkey. Building on a comprehensive, mixed-method content analysis of
Turkish parliamentary proceedings, it demonstrates that Turkish politicians are more likely
to make negative comments about Armenians while debating about national security and
foreign threats than when speaking about other topics. The paper concludes that perceived
threats contribute to the negative descriptions of Armenians in Turkish politics.
Keywords Group position theory· Intergroup hostility· Mixed-methods· Turkey·
Turkish-armenian relations
1 Introduction
Intergroup hostility is often triggered and/or legitimized by threats dominant groups per-
ceive from minorities. For example, Dhattiwala and Biggs’ (2012) study on the anti-Mus-
lim violence of 2002 in Gujarat shows that the level of violence was positively correlated
with the majority’s perception of demographic threats. Group position theory (Blumer
1958; Bobo 1999), a substantial topic of sociological literature, suggests that the members
of dominant groups become antagonistic towards minorities once they perceive them as
threats to their prerogatives. Accordingly, this perspective is frequently used to examine the
public perception of minorities in the developed world, underscoring that population sizes
of minorities and worsening economic conditions are significant predictors of hostility. The
field, however, is short on analyses of the historical backgrounds of intergroup hostility and
examples from less developed countries. This paper contributes to filling these scholarly
* Türkay Salim Nefes
tnefes@gmail.com
1 Institute ofPublic Policy, Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain
2 Camlik cd. Cigdem sk. Mutlu ap. No: 7/5. Bahcelievler, Istanbul, Turkey
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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