THE IMAGE OF TURKEY IN THE ISLAMIC STATE’S PROPAGANDA MAGAZINES: A CONTENT ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/TIS.2022.010Keywords
digital jihad, Islamic State, Turkey, content analysis, propagandaAbstract
At the beginning of the 21st century, the establishment of the caliphate remained invariably the strategic goal of the global Salafi-jihadist movement. The Islamic State’s (IS; often referred to as ISIS – Islamic State of Iraq and ah-Sham; Dāʿish or Daesh) primary goal of establishing a caliphate has placed ‘apostate’ regimes rather than Western countries, as their primary enemies. Such country is Turkey, which IS describes as tağut. Indeed, the first issue of the Dabiq magazine targets Turkey as a hostile tyrannical country. This article examines the IS’s approach to Turkey, which, due to cultural differences, is located on the border of Western and Middle Eastern civilizations (this approach to Turkey’s role is supported by its membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – NATO and negotiations of its accession to the European Union – EU). The author attempts to explore the main themes related to Turkey in IS’s English-language magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah, as well as the Turkish-language Konstantiniyye. The article aims to investigate whether Turkey is a main enemy and indirectly present whether its involvement in the fight against IS is/was linked to the increased terrorist threat in Turkey. The author hopes that this research will enrich the knowledge about jihadi propaganda and IS’s approach to close enemies (al-adou al-qareeb).
References
Alazreg, A. A. (2016). ISIS: Management of Savagery. Dorrance Publishing Co.
Alexander, Y. & Alexander, D. (2015). The Islamic State: Combating the caliphate without borders. Lexington Books.
Andersen, J. C., & Sandberg, S. (2020). Islamic State Propaganda: Between Social Movement Framing and Subcultural Provocation. Terrorism and Political Violence, 32(7), 1506–1526. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2018.1484356
Bröckling, M., Fritsch, C., Haider, M., & Yalman, T. (2018). ‘Kill them wherever you find them’ - radicalizing narratives of the ‘so-called’ Islamic State via the online magazine Rumiyah. Journal for Deradicalization, 19 (17), 240–294. http://journals.sfu.ca/jd/index.php/jd/article/view/180/135
Brooke, S. (2010). Strategic fissures: The near and far enemy debate. In A. Moghadam & B. Fishman (Eds.), Self-inflicted wounds: Debates and division in Al-Qa’ida and its periphery (pp. 45-68). Combating Terrorism Center. https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/wps/ctc/0020857/f_0020857_17347.pdf
Cantey, S. (2018). Beyond the Pale? Exploring Prospects for Negotiations with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 41(10), 757–775. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2017.1348096
Crisis Group. (2016). The struggle with Islamic State that Turkey hoped to avoid. Retrieved July 20, 2021, from https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/western-europemediterranean/turkey/struggle-islamic-state-turkey-hoped-avoid
Dabiq. (2014). Issue 1. Retrieved June 10, 2020, from http://media.clarion project.org/files/09-2014/isis-isil-islamic-state-magazine-Issue-1-the-return-of-khilafah.pdf
Dabiq. (2015). Issue 10. Retrieved June 10, 2021, from https://jihadology.net/2015/07/13/al-%e1%b8%a5ayat-media-center-presents-a-new-issue-of-the-islamic-states-magazine-dabiq-10/
Dabiq. (2015). Issue 11. Retrieved June 10, 2021, from https://jihadology.net/2015/09/09/al-%e1%b8%a5ayat-media-center-presents-a-new-issue-of-the-islamic-states-magazine-dabiq-11/
Dabiq. (2015). Issue 12. Retrieved June 10, 2021, from https://jihadology.net/2015/11/18/new-issue-of-the-islamic-states-magazine-dabiq-12%e2%80%b3/
Dabiq. (2016). Issue 14. Retrieved June 10, 2021, from https://jihadology.net/2016/04/13/new-issue-of-the-islamic-states-magazine-dabiq-14/
Dabiq. (2016). Issue 5. Retrieved June 10, 2021, from http://www.ieproject.org/projects/dabiq5.pdf
Dabiq. (2016). Issue 8. Retrieved June 10, 2021, from https://jihadology.net/2015/03/30/al-%e1%b8%a5ayat-media-center-presents-a-new-issue-of-the-islamic-states-magazine-dabiq-8/
Dabiq. (2016). Issue 9. Retrieved June 10, 2021, from https://clarionproject.org/docs/isis-isil-islamic-state-magazine-issue+9-they-plot-and-allah-plots-sex-slavery.pdf
Dodwell, B., Milton, D., & Rassler, D. (2016). The caliphate’s global workforce: An inside look at the Islamic State’s foreign fighter paper trail. Combatting Terrorism Center. Retrieved April 20, 2021, from https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-caliphates-global-workforce-an-inside-look-at-the-islamic-states-foreign-fighter-paper-trail
Fahmy, S. S. (2020). The age of terrorism media: The visual narratives of the Islamic State Group’s Dabiq magazine. International Communication Gazette, 82(3), 260–288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048519843412
Fuhriman, C., Medina, R. M., & Brewer, S. (2020). Introducing a Dataset of Multi-Scale Geographies of ISIS Ideology from ISIS Sources. Terrorism and Political Violence, 34(4), 817–834. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2020.1742707
Gögen, S. (2018). IS-Propaganda in der Türkei: Die Onlinezeitschrift Konstantiniyye: Ein Ein- und Überblick. In W. Hohberger, R. Karadag, K. Müller, & C. Ramm (Eds.), Grenzräume, Grenzgänge, Entgrenzungen (pp. 147–169). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-20451-8_7
Guiton, B. (2014, November 7). ISIS sees Turkey as its ally: Former Islamic State member reveals Turkish Army cooperation. Newsweek. Retrieved July 19, 2021, from https://www.newsweek.com/isis-and-turkey-cooperate-destroy-kurds-former-isis-member-reveals-turkish-282920
Habeck, M. (2006). Knowing the enemy: Jihadist ideology and the war on terror. Yale University Press.
Hafez, M. M. (2010). Tactics, takfir and anti-Muslim violence. In A. Moghadan & B. Fishman (Eds.), Self-inflicted wounds: Debates and division in Al-Qa’ida and its periphery (pp. 19-44). Combating Terrorism Center. https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/wps/ctc/0020857/f_0020857_17347.pdf
Hegghammer, T. (2006). Global Jihadism after the Iraq War. Middle East Journal 60(1), 11–32. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4330214
Intermedia Education Project. (2019). Retrieved June 10, 2021, from https://www.ieproject.org/
Jihadology. (2019). New issues of the Islamic State’s magazine: Dabiq. Retrieved July 19, 2020, from https://jihadology.net/?s=Dabiq
Jihadology. (2019). New magazine issue from The Islamic State: “Constantinople #7”. Retrieved July 19, 2020, from https://jihadology.net/?s=konstantiniyye
Jihadology. (2019). New release of the Islamic State’s magazine: Rome. Retrieved July 19, 2020, from https://jihadology.net/?s=rome
Jihadology (2015). North Caucasus caucus. ‘The conquest of Constantinople: The Islamic State targets a Turkish audience.’ Retrieved July 28, 2020, from http://jihadology.net/2015/06/09/guest-post-the-conquest-of-constantinople-the-islamic-state-targets-a-turkish-audience/
Klausen, J. (2015). Tweeting the Jihad: Social Media Networks of Western Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2014.974948
Konstantiniyye. (2015). Issue 1. Retrieved August 15, 2021, from https://jihadology.net/2015/06/02/al-%e1%b8%a5ayat-media-center-presents-a-new-magazine-from-the-islamic-state-constantinople-1/
Konstantiniyye. (2015). Issue 2. Retrieved August 15, 2021, from https://jihadology.net/2015/07/21/al-%e1%b8%a5ayat-media-center-presents-a-new-magazine-issue-from-the-islamic-state-constantinople-2/
Konstantiniyye. (2015). Issue 4. Retrieved August 15, 2020, from https://jihadology.net/2015/12/02/new-magazine-issue-from-the-islamic-state-constantinople-4/
Konstantiniyye. (2016). Issue 7. Retrieved August 15, 2020, from https://jihadology.net/?s=constantinople
Korkmaz, S. (2016). Propaganda of terror: Konstantiniyye magazine and the discourse of DAESH (Report No: 204). ORSAM. https://icare4all.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/204eng.pdf
Lakomy, M. (2019). Danse macabre: Gore images in the Islamic State’s ‘Dabiq’ magazine as a propaganda device. The International Journal of Intelligence, Security, and Public Affairs, 21(2), 143–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800992.2019.1649138
Lakomy, M. (2020). “One of the Two Good Outcomes”: Turning Defeats into Victories in the Islamic State’s Flagship Magazine Rumiyah. Terrorism and Political Violence, 32(8), 1712–1730. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2018.1506335
Laqueur, W. (2004). No end to war: Terrorism in the twenty-first century. Continuum.
Minkina, M. (2002). Artykuł 5 Traktatu Waszyngtońskiego. Wojsko i Wychowanie, 5, 109–113.
NATO. (1949, April). The North Atlantic treaty. Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm
Orzechowski, M. (2016). Mój sąsiad islamista. Muza.
Parlar Dal, E. (2016). Impact of the transnationalization of the Syrian civil war on Turkey: Conflict spillover cases of ISIS and PYD-YPG/PKK. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 29(4), 1396–1420. https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2016.1256948
Parlar Dal, E. (2018). The contagion of the Syrian civil war into Turkey under the impact of ISIS and YPG cases: Conditioning factors and diffusion mechanism. In Ö.Z. Oktav, E.D. Parlar & A.M. Kurşun (Eds.), Violent Non-state Actors and the Syrian Civil War. The ISIS and YPG Cases (pp. 211–233). Springer.
Pregill, M. (2016). ISIS, eschatology, and exegesis: The propaganda of Dabiq and the sectarian rhetoric of militant Shi’ism. Mizan: Journal for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations, 1(1), 1–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/y5mz-9v54
Rumiyah. (2016). Issue 11. Retrieved June 30, 2021, from https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/rome-magazine-11.pdf
Rumiyah. (2017). Issue 13. Retrieved June 30, 2021, from https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/rome-magazine-13.pdf
Rumiyah. (2016). Issue 3. Retrieved June 30, 2021, from https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/rome-magazine-3.pdf
Rumiyah. (2016). Issue 4. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/rome-magazine-4.pdf
Rumiyah. (2017). Issue 5. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/rome-magazine-5.pdf
Rumiyah. (2017). Issue 6. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://jihadology.net/2017/02/04/new-release-of-the-islamic-states-magazine-rome-6/
Rumiyah. (2017). Issue 7. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/rome-magazine-7.pdf
Shaheen, K. (2016, October 16). Turkish-backed Syrian rebels recapture town of Dabiq from Isis. The Guardian. Retrieved August 20, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/16/turkish-opposition-fighters-syria-dabiq-islamic-state
Sönmez, G. (2019, July). Turkey’s Fight Against ISIS (Report no. 5). ORSAM. https://orsam.org.tr/d_hbanaliz/turkeys-fight-against-isis.pdf
Stempień, M. S. (2021). Russia in the eyes of Islamic State: An analysis of the content of Dabiq and Rumiyah magazines and Russia’s involvement in the fight against the Islamic State. Terrorism and Political Violence, 33(8), 1752–1774. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2019.1657097
Stempień, M. S. (2018). Państwo Islamskie: nowe oblicze terroryzmu? Oficyna Wydawnicza Rytm.
The Economist. (2016, October 29). Erdogan's war game; Turkey's intervention in Syria and Iraq. Retrieved November 26, 2022, from https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2016/10/27/erdogans-war-game
Welch, T. (2018). Theology, heroism, justice, and fear: An analysis of ISIS propaganda magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 11(3), 186–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/17467586.2018.1517943
Wignell, P., Tan, S., O’Halloran, K., & Lange, R. (2017). A mixed methods empirical examination of changes in emphasis and style in the extremist magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah. Perspectives on Terrorism, 11(2), 2–20.
Yayla, A. S. & Speckhard, A. (2016). Aftermath of another ISIS attack in Gaziantep, Turkey: A possible new internal conflict for Turkey. ICSVE Brief Reports.
York, R. (2015). Know the enemy: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Lulu Press, Inc.
Zelin, A. Y. (2015). Picture or it didn’t happen: A snapshot of the Islamic State’s official media output. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(4), 85–97.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Marta Sara Stempień
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 454
Number of citations: 0
