Embracing the Joining of Hatay to the Motherland in the Press: The Sample of Cumhuriyet Newspaper

The joining of Hatay to the Turkey which was carried out by Atatürk personally until the final stage with his statement “Forty centuries-old Turkish land cannot be captivated by the enemy”, is the most important border change in the history of our Republic which came true as a result of international struggle that took place approximately twenty years. Hatay, which was separated from the Motherland after The First World War, has become the most important agenda of everyone in Turkey as a problem that should be solved until it had joined to Turkey in June 29, 1939 with the decision that was taken by the Assembly of Hatay. The newspapers of that time frequently included all kinds of progress about the process in their publishing either as news or in columns by following closely the Hatay (Sanjak) problem since the very beginning. In this context, the approach of Cumhuriyet Newspaper, which is the most-read and most efficient newspaper of that time, is extremely important. Thus, news and comments in Cumhuriyet Newspaper, especially after the decision of joining of Hatay to Turkey, carries a great importance discursively. This study, aims to reveal the progresses at issue in the days when Hatay joined to the Motherland in the sample of Cumhuriyet Newspaper, which is one of the most important newspapers of that time, in terms of how it was discussed in the press, the way it was handled and the comments about the issue and aims to reflect the approach of Cumhuriyet Newspaper to the subject in terms of discursive dimension.Within this context, the news and columns about the decision of joining of Hatay were examined by using the critical discursive analysis of Teun van Dijk, by examining the copies that was published between the dates of 29 June-29 July 1939 and the discourse in the background was put forward