Mapping Heterotopias: Looking Beyond the Security-Obsessed Aesthetics of the Border Discourse on the Turkey-Syria Border

Abstract

This research, conducted between 2023 and 2024, analyzes the security-obsessed discourse of the Turkey-Syria Border as constructed by mass media narratives. The paper aims to reconstruct this state-imposed aesthetics of the border discourse in Turkey by using architectural methods and revealing the alternative spatial implications of bordering to what is served to the public. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in May 2023 in five Turkish provinces bordering Syria (Hatay, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Mardin, Batman), the research utilizes data from semi-structured interviews and participant observation conducted in the region. The findings from the fieldwork, combined with GIS mapping tools, enabled the identification of heterotopic spaces along the border, in order to be subsequently spatially analyzed and illustrated. By synthesizing these findings using literature from border, migration, and media studies, the paper proposes a counter-mapping methodology to look beyond the imposed aesthetics of the border as a security mechanism in the mass media narrative. Ultimately, this research challenges the limited understanding of conventional cartographies and mobilizes alternative maps to confront the logic of design and the project of the border.