QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Elections are a goldmine for amateur and up-and-coming film-makers. So, too, in Turkey. Legally, Turkish parties were able to release televised ads between ten days before the election and 6 pm today. Yet most of Turkey’s airwaves are firmly in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s grasp. One April study of state broadcaster TRT showed that the country’s leader received 32 hours of coverage. His main opponent, Kemal Kilicdargolu, was given 32 minutes.
Thus, many parties have taken their campaigning online. Kilicdaroglu’s kitchen addresses, posted to Twitter, have become an instant classic. The ruling AK party has released at least one ad a day on their Twitter page, interpolated with live streams of Erdogan’s speeches across the country.
Most are run-of-the-mill political ads that feature young families, rested pensioners, and smiling children. A few stand out. There is, for instance, the AKP’s 1:20 minute clip, released on May 10, showing a gloved figure sabotaging a mast holding a football field-sized Turkish flag. Hundreds of citizens form a human pyramid; one young man climbs it, takes hold of the rope, and jumps into the abyss in order to re-hoist it. Such ads offer nothing in concrete policy proposals. Instead, they are meant to evoke feelings of nationalism and fear of internal enemies. The imagery conjures up similar scenes in 2016, when the president’s supporters amassed in the streets in order to prevent a military coup. At least 179 civilians died defending Erdogan against rogue elements of the state and armed forces.
The president has implied that his political opposition have similar nefarious intentions. Last week, the president said he would not let the country fall to someone supported by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). He followed that statement up with a doctored clip last Sunday, which combined one of Kilicdaroglu’s campaign ads with an old video of Murat Karayilan, a co-founder of the PKK. “I appeal to the youth,” Kilicdaroglu responded in a tweet. “There is someone who shamelessly serves you propaganda through doctored content.” The opposition candidate has been endorsed by the pro-Kurdish HDP party. Kurds, who have in the past mostly favored the AKP, are likely to be these elections’ kingmakers.
The opposition’s main contender also lashed out against Russia for a deepfake video of presidential candidate Muharrem Ince, a former member of Kilicdargolu’s CHP party. The video is reportedly a sex tape. “Dear Russian friends, you are behind the fabrications, conspiracies, deepfake content and tapes that were exposed in this country yesterday,” Kilicdaroglu tweeted. “If you want the continuation of our friendship after May 15, take your hands off the Turkish state. We are still in favor of cooperation and friendship.”
As North Press reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin favors an Erdogan comeback on May 14. Erdogan countered Kilicdaroglu’s accusations at a town hall meeting, saying “now he is attacking Mr. Putin, attacking Russia … I’m sorry, but I cannot stay silent when you attack Putin. Because our relations with Russia are not less than our relations with the United States.” Putin and Erdogan have built a working relationship for nearly a decade. The opposition, on the other hand, has made overtures to the US and NATO. Nevertheless, economic and security ties mean Turkey’s largely neutral stance towards Russia will carry on into the coming administration, regardless of who wins.
Ince announced his withdrawal from the presidential race on May 11 (He placed the blame for the video on an “Israeli porn site”). Kilicdaroglu has warned against such doctored content in past weeks. His camp says the AKP had fabricated and disseminated similar content against the presidential hopeful.
Not all of the government’s attack ads were as detached from reality. Another popular AKP clip, posted to Twitter, shows a veiled student entering university. Her uneventful breeze through security is contrasted with archival footage of female students manhandled by police. Until Erdogan’s ascend to power, the secular political class had outlawed wearing the Muslim hijab in tertiary education institutions. The draconian ban was implemented by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his CHP in the 1920s. It was supported by the party for nearly a century, even in defiance of a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
The main opposition party has to contend with this ugly history. It similarly has to tackle the fact that it committed and supported atrocities against Kurds in the southeast. The violence and vitriol of the old CHP and the secular class drove many Kurds into the hands of Erdogan.
Kilicdaroglu has attempted to address these failings and call for greater tolerance, including in another popular kitchen video – titled ‘Alevi.’ – which has been viewed over 115 million times. For now, his promises for change are as real as Russian deepfakes or flag saboteurs. Only the actions taken after May 15 will separate fact from fiction.