For the last five years in particular, Turkey has been, on one side, tackling with the indirect effects of the disasters that have enveloped its neighbors Syria and Iraq. On the other hand, she struggles against serious challenges such as coups, uprisings, the PKK terror group and the FETO parallel state structure. In this multi-dimensional struggle, it could not have received some of its Western allies’ support she anticipated. Meanwhile she is presented to the international public as the guilty party, even regarding the issues that she is most right about.

In this organized perception operation, the mainstream Western media plays a leading role as always. At every opportunity, a cruel perception operation is carried out by means of this media in order to erode Turkey and foment a worldwide negative perception of Turkey. Some prominent American media institutions, think tanks and a major part of the European press support this campaign, which is led and orchestrated by some mainstream British media organs.

The question is: Is Turkey really a country of disasters as presented by these circles or does she face a giant campaign of defamation? To have a better grasp of this issue, we need to look at the primary claims and related justifications put forth by the institutions in question:

The claim that July 15th coup attempt was a “controlled coup”, a fiction staged by Mr. Erdoğan and his followers:

The July 15th coup was staged by 171 generals many times more than the number of generals who commanded previous coups in Turkey. The impossibility of convincing so many high-ranking people in the military to play a “coup theatre” is obvious.

Furthermore, this coup was the first one in Turkish history in which aircraft and ships were used. 35 aircraft, 37 helicopters, 246 tanks and armored cars and three ships were used in the coup.

It was certainly the bloodiest coup in Turkish history. 248 people, many of them civilians, were martyred while more than 1500 people were injured. F-16s bombed the Police Special Operations Center, the Turkish Parliament, the Presidential Palace, the MIT (Turkey’s intelligence service) complex and many other official and private institutions. Despite all this, some conditions which were unseen in previous coups caused the failure of the coup. The real reason why the coup failed was the thousands of citizens who took to the streets upon Mr. Erdoğan’s call and the resistance they showed against the coup plotter soldiers. The entrances of barracks and routes of tanks were blocked by trucks and heavy vehicles of municipalities while anti-coup generals and citizens destroyed airport runways. Meanwhile, the announcement by the rest of the Turkish armed forces stating they rejected the coup caused the failure of the coup. 

If these unanticipated incidents, unseen in previous coups, did not occur, it would not be possible for such a powerfully orchestrated coup to fail.

The slander that Turkey does not struggle against ISIS, and even supports it

When ISIS was included in the terror organization list of Turkey in 2013, it was not in the list of any other country at that time. Britain, Russia, Jordan, Israel, Italy, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and many other countries only subsequently proclaimed ISIS as a terror organization.

ISIS has carried out around 10 wide-scale, bloody terror acts in Turkey and the organization issued a death fatwa against Mr. Erdoğan. Similarly the anti-ISIS coalition is deployed from Incirlik airbase in Turkey and the Turkish army purged the Syrian city al-Bab from ISIS. While this is the case, it is obvious that the claims of Turkey supporting ISIS are only speculative at best. Meanwhile, everybody is well aware that such accusations are familiar tactics employed to create pressure on countries or to intensify black propaganda.

Unfounded news suggesting there exists no freedom of thought and freedom of press and that democracy does not function in Turkey:

It is true that there are some journalists and deputies are in Turkish prisons, though the number is not as many as claimed. Too much speculation is made on this issue and perception is generated as if these people have been put in jails because of their thoughts. However, these people were not arrested because of their personal views or political identities. They were convicted because of their verified direct or organic links to terror organizations such as the PKK, FETÖ, DHKP-C, KCK and MLKP. Today in the US, Britain or the European countries, let alone advocating a terror organization’s views openly, even implying it is a cause for immediate arrest and maltreatment of that person no matter what his identity might be.

Surely we hope that these people are released by the courts pending trial, and these arrests no longer become a pretext for any terror provocations. However, when we consider Turkey’s current situation, taking extra precautions in many issues would seem rightful.

Some of these journalists and politicians were convicted of disclosing state intelligence secrets to the public. Not only in Turkey but in all countries of the world, this is treason, which is an offense.

The claim that the state of emergency in Turkey is unnecessary and that people’s freedoms are curbed because of the state of emergency:

Although so far Turkey has faced many coup attempts and terror acts which were more brutal than those in European countries, and although they’ve occurred on a more frequent basis, it has an emergency state environment, which is more free than the one in France. While armed soldiers started to patrol London streets following only a single terror act in Britain, citizens in Turkey do not even notice the state of emergency. Even tourists are aware that the daily life in Turkey is not affected by the state of emergency.

The state of emergency in Turkey only brings regulations that limit the mobility of terror organizations and coup plotters. The reason why some media uses the state of emergency as a pretext is to irritate European countries and find a guise for the slander “the freedoms are being curbed.”

The Claim that the Referendum of April 16th made Mr. Erdoğan a dictator:

The new constitutional referendum held in Turkey on April 16th was concluded with the “yes” campaign prevailing. Following this outcome some European media organs resorted to outright hate speech. Some examples are as follows:

The Economist: "Turkey is sliding into dictatorship"... The Financial Times: "A bitter victory for Turkey’s new sultan"... The Independent: "Erdogan’s ‘rigged referendum’ will make Turkey prey for the country’s many enemies"... Bild: "German Turks voted for a despot"... Spiegel Online: " Turks have voted to give their autocratic president even more power"... Frankfurter Allgemeine: "Through the wild Erdoğanistan"...

However, the constitutional proposal accepted by the referendum is simply a version of the Presidential or half-presidential system -used in many countries of the world- which has been adapted to the conditions of Turkey. In the new constitution, there is not a particular article related to Mr. Erdoğan. Whoever wins the elections will be the President and they will have the authority specified in the Constitution. Turkey is one of the countries in the world with the safest election environment where turnout is the highest. Yet it seems those who could not have find a reasonable pretext for claims of dictatorship for Mr. Erdoğan hope for help from the referendum results.

The media in question intensively uses many similar unfounded claims with a “mud-slinging” rationale. However, such defamation may be influential over people in different parts of the world who do not have enough information about the region and Turkey.

Recently it can be seen that such perception operations - with similar purposes and slanders - are becoming widespread in some Islamic countries. All these are the part of the plot designed to weaken the powerful countries of the Islamic world and then to set them against one another; the ultimate goal is to destroy the entire Islamic world. Against this insidious plot, there is no way out other than an alliance of the Islamic world.

Adnan Oktar's piece in The Peninsula Qatar