Abstract:

Presidential System in Turkey has been discussed for a long time. The issue which was first brought to the public agenda by the then President Turgut Özal in 1992 was again brought to the attention of the public in 1999 by the then President Süleyman Demirel. This issue was reopened to the discussion by The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) which became to power in 2002, and the eligibility of the Presidential System in Turkey has been frequently highlighted particularly recent years by Recep Tayyip Erdogan who was the leader of The Justice and Development Party and Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey. The issue which has been frequently brought to the public agenda by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who was elected as the President of Republic of Turkey in August 2014 was among the main political debate of the 7 June General Election period in Turkey in 2015. Presidential System discussions which preoccupied the political agenda was reflected in the media agenda, too. In this study, how printed press organizations with different ideologies approach the ongoing discussions of Presidential System in Turkey was examined in the framework of the theory of agenda- setting and the theory of public opinion-forming. In the study, attitudes of printed press to the discussions of Presidential System between June 1, 2015 and June 7, 2015 was examined with the content analysis method applied to the samples of Hürriyet, Ortadoğu, Sabah, Sözcü, Yeni Şafak and Zaman Newspapers. With the study, how and what extent the printed media gave place to the news about the Presidential System and the discussions about it discussed.

Keywords: