The Disourse of War in the Middle East: Analysis of Syria's Civil Crises in English Editorials Published in Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia

This paper examines the relationships between language and ideology and how ideology is constructed and presented via different language choices in English editorials published in different socio-cultural contexts. Van Dijk’s (2000a) ideological square in terms of representation of the self and other was applied to the editorials. Through a comparative analysis of Iranian, Turkish and Saudi Arabian newspaper editorials with different ideologies, the study attempts to reveal how these ideologies are represented differently in the texts regarding civil crisis in Syria in 2012. It aims to show how writers, by using various strategies such as evil doing, humanitarianism, cause of crisis, and history as lesson manipulate the realizations of agency and power in the representation of action to produce particular meanings which are not always explicit for all readers. Data gathered for the analysis were 45 editorials from three newspapers of Tehran Times, Today Zaman, and Arab News during the first half of the year 2012 (15 from each). Careful selection of 6 editorials for qualitative analysis indicates that the three newspapers focus on different aspects of reality and, by using various language strategies, influence reader's understanding of the events.