The largest is the holding of oligarch Ibrahim Demirören, who owns the flagship of the Turkish media market, Hürriyet, and dozens of TV channels and digital platforms that reach almost the entire Turkish-speaking audience in the country and in the diasporas. The site receives 87 million visits daily and is the 11th most popular in the country, with only transnational Youtube, Google, X and several marketplaces ahead of it. Hürriyet has been the leading news outlet in Turkey for 33 years. Therefore, let's assume that if the news is in Hürriyet, it is in the minds of Turkish content consumers.

In 2014 and in 2022, Crimea was massively covered by thousands of Turkish media outlets, including films and TV series with Crimean Tatar characters. These two spikes - the occupation of the peninsula and the beginning of Russia's full scale war against Ukraine - put the peninsula back on the national agenda.

Let's see what it looks like in the first two weeks of April 2025.

The last time the word “Crimea” was used was on April 13 in a news story by the Moscow-based newspaper's editor about a meeting between US Presidential Special Envoy Witkoff and Putin. The text of the news is not worthy of attention because it is standard: about 4 regions and Crimea, which Moscow demands to be officially recognized as Russian. Only the headline is worthy of attention: “One from a huckster, the other from a general: two Ukrainian proposals from the United States”.

The word “tüccar” in Turkish has a neutral meaning and means an intermediary in wholesale trade, but in the political context it acquires a negative connotation and is translated as “speculator” or “huckster.” This headline in the pro-government publication clearly defines Ankara's attitude to the American proposals and the person voicing them.

The previous news item mentioning Crimea is from April 10 and is dedicated to the space flight of former Ukrainian military officer Oleksiy Zubrytsky, who defected to Russia after the occupation. Most of the news is devoted to Zubrytsky's betrayal, so it is worth paying attention to for those in Crimea who think that they can first go over to the side of the occupier and then flee to Turkey. It is not possible now. In Ankara, treason is called treason.

On April 10, there was also news about Moscow's shelling of energy facilities and Ukraine's response. Hürriyet lists all the Russian military facilities that Kyiv attacked, including those located on the occupied peninsula.

For the third time, on April 10, Crimea is mentioned in the “culture” section, referring to the pan-Turkic holiday of Hıdırlez. It is known in Turkey, but not much celebrated. Despite the Muslim adaptation (the meeting of the prophets Khidir and Ilyas), it is a holiday of the beginning of summer and carries pagan traditions and Christian influence. The article emphasizes that it is most popular among Crimeans, Gagauzes, and Balkan Roma.

The fourth news item that mentions Crimea is also from April 10. It is about preparations for the Antalya Diplomatic Forum. The publication specifically notes that on the eve of the meeting, Lavrov demanded control and inspection of all ships entering Ukrainian ports, and then Hürriyet gives a reference to the Ukrainian side - the complete clearing of the western part of the Black Sea from the Russian military presence.

The story with a reference to Crimea on April 6 is a long interview with the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament Numan Kurtulmuş. It is dedicated to new actors in global geopolitics and the future European security architecture. Ankara does not believe that a united Europe without Turkey is possible. Speaker Kurtulmuş lays the responsibility for today's threats to Europe on Turkey itself, without any diplomatic curtsies: “If Europe in 2014 could have responded to Russia's annexation of Crimea, the world today would be different. However, Europe did not even make a peep about Crimea. Therefore, Europe's current concern for its own security is something that should have been expected.”

The story of April 2 is about the reopening of the Bardufoss air base by the Norwegians, which was closed in 2009 as an unnecessary remnant of the Cold War. The authors of the Turkish report about the NATO ally make it clear that the F-35 base, which is securely protected by rocks and located in a 250-meter tunnel, is a response to the shock of the occupation of Ukrainian Crimea in 2014.

This brief monitoring of the pro-government and popular Hürriyet shows that the Turkish information field keeps Crimea under constant scrutiny, calls Russia the aggressor, Ukraine the victim, and the annexation of Crimea the beginning of chaos in world relations. And although Erdogan continues to call Putin a “friend,” his inner circle and the media currently see the only response to the “friend's” actions as a reliable weapon that can put Moscow in its place, as it did in Syria.