Uluslararası Politik Retorikte Komplo Teorileri: Yeniden Refah Partisi Üzerine Çok Katmanlı Bir Analiz

Political parties strategically use conspiracy theories (CTs) to achieve political goals when interpreting international politics. They deploy CTs as a tool for propaganda, legitimizing their ideologies and delegitimizing others. Ruling parties resort to this repertoire to maintain their power, whereas opposition parties use it to challenge them. While Turkish scholarship covers mainstream parties, the use of CTs by low-representation parties remains understudied. This thesis contributes to the literature by systematically tracing how CTs are utilized in the international political rhetoric of an underrepresented actor in Türkiye. It analyzes the rhetoric of the New Welfare Party (YRP), which has rapidly expanded its voter and membership base since its establishment in 2018 and has utilized CTs extensively in this process. Employing a multi-layered analytical framework that combines content and discourse analysis, this thesis compares the YRP with the Felicity Party (SP), another representative of the Milli Görüş movement, analyzes the long-term trajectory and thematic content of YRP’s political rhetoric, and compares YRP with Necmettin Erbakan’s Milli Görüş using the Discourse-Historical Approach. Findings reveal that, compared to SP, YRP uses CTs more intensively, with nearly one out of every two speeches in its rhetoric containing CTs. Comparing YRP’s rhetoric with N. Erbakan’s Milli Görüş reveals both ideological continuities and new adaptations in the use of CTs. Based on the findings, this thesis concludes that CTs about international politics have the potential to influence foreign policy decisions and undermine public trust in international institutions and processes.