The Discursive Construction of War and Peace in the Books of Three Turkish Commanders on the “1974 Cyprus Peace Operation”

Year 2019, Volume: 20 Issue: 44, 19 - 46, 20.03.2020

D. Beybin Kejanlıoğlu Nico Carpentıer

Abstract

 The article analyses the construction of war and peace in three books, so-called ego-documents, written by soldiers who themselves fought in the Cypriot 1974 war. In order to better understand these constructions, we first develop a theoretical model on war and peace discourses, supported by Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, which has been cross-fertilized with the empirical analysis. War discourses are seen to have five nodal points: 1/An Enemy-Self dichotomy; 2/The Army as war assemblage; 3/Destruction and death (of the Enemy); 4/Legitimations and aims of war; 5/A spatially and temporally restricted arena of intensified reality. Peace discourses have two variations: The photo-negativistic articulation of peace (with these nodal points: 1/The absence of the Enemy, 2/The non-combatant or non-existent Army; 3/The absence of death and destruction, with the emphasis on life, 4/The absence of legitimations (and aims) of war; 5/Continuity of space and time, as everyday life) and the more autonomous articulation of peace (with two nodal points: 1/Social harmony, economic equity and social justice; 2/Desire for, and the desirability of, peace). Our discourse-theoretical analysis demonstrates how these three books mostly articulate war discourses, but the books are also seen to contain two important characteristics from a democratic-humanist perspective: They still contain articulations of the peace discourses, and they demonstrate the dislocations of the war discourses.

Keywords

Constructionism, Discourse, War, Peace, Enemy, Cyprus, Ego-documents

Supporting Institution

Swedish Institute

Thanks

This publication was made possible by a research stay at Uppsala University (Sweden), financed by a Swedish Institute scholarship.

Üç Türk Komutanın “1974 Kıbrıs Barış Harekâtı” üzerine Yazdıkları Kitaplarda Savaş ve Barışın Söylemsel İnşası

Abstract

Makale, 1974 Kıbrıs savaşında savaşmış askerlerin yazdığı, kişisel yaşantı belgeleri de denilen, üç kitapta savaş ve barışın inşasını analiz etmektedir. Bu inşayı daha iyi anlamak için öncelikle savaş ve barış söylemleri üzerine Laclau ve Mouffe’un söylem teorisince desteklenen teorik bir model geliştirdik. Bu model, ampirik analizle karşılıklı olarak beslendi. Savaş söylemlerinin beş düğüm noktası olduğu görüldü: 1/Bir Kendi (Self)-Düşman ikiliği; 2/ Savaş bileşimi olarak Ordu; 3/ İmha ve (Düşmanın) ölüm(ü); 4/ Savaşın meşrulaştırılması ve amaçları; 5/ Zamansal ve uzamsal olarak sınırlı alanda yoğunlaşmış gerçeklik. Barış söylemlerinin ise, iki çeşitlemesi var: Savaşın negatif imgesi olarak eklemlenmesi (şu düğüm noktalarına sahip: 1/ Düşmanın yokluğu, 2/ Savaşkan olmayan ya da var olmayan Ordu, 3/ Yaşam üzerindeki vurgu ile imha ve ölümün yokluğu, 4/ Savaşın meşrulaştırılmasının ve (amaçlarının) yokluğu, 5/ Gündelik hayattaki gibi zaman ve uzamda süreklilik) ve barışın daha özerk eklemlenmesi (iki düğüm noktası mevcut: 1/ Toplumsal uyum, ekonomik eşitlik ve toplumsal adalet; 2/ Barış arzusu ve barışın arzu edilirliği). Söylem-teorik analizimiz, bu üç kitabın çoklukla savaş söylemlerini eklemlediklerini göstermektedir. Ancak kitapların demokratik-hümanist perspektiften iki önemli nitelik taşıdıkları da görülmektedir: Halen barış söylemlerini de eklemlemeleri ve savaş söylemlerinin yerlerinden oynatılmalarını göstermeleri.

Keywords

İnşacılık, Söylem, Savaş, Barış, Düşman, Kıbrıs, Kişisel Yaşantı Belgeleri

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