The dishonesty of Turkish Hurriyet English

I follow the Turkish political and social scene with interest. This may be due to the ruling Ak Party headed by the hotheaded but extremely popular Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan and may be due to my interest in pre- and post Ottoman Turkey and especially their architecture.

Anyway, there are only two English dailies in Turkey. One is the Hurriyet Daily News and the other, Todays Zaman. The later is owned by the Gulen Movement. The two are quite antagonistic in many ways. Todays Zaman is pro-AKP while the Hurriyet Daily News is viciously anti-AKP. It is quite easy to understand why!

Todays Zaman is owned by the conservative but very tolerant Gulen Movement and it is in their interest to support a government that doesn’t persecute them as was the case before AKP was elected in 2002. Hurriyet’s case is quite different. They were supportive of the Erdogan government for a while-not wholly, but somehow- when business deals were coming their way. It is owned by Turkey’s Robert Murdoch: Aydın Doğan who dominated the Turkish media scene like a colossus in the past.

Erdogan and Dogan have had a public spat and once their relations broke down, Dogan turned to his media empire for help. On the Turkish front: support the opposition and in particular the rigidly secular CHP. On the international front, use Hurriyet English to dish out extremely twisted information about Erdogan and his government. If you log on to the website and you are familiar with the region, you will think you are reading an Isreali conservative propaganda machine dishing out Hasbara.

I’m saying this because Haaretz, an influential Israeli newspaper is more nuanced and intellectual (despite it being a Jewish newspaper) than the Turkish Hurriyet English. But you can understand. No business deals, no good coverage. Only that in many instances, they are harming the strategic interests of their nation in their blind hatred for Erdogan.

But there is something else I want to talk about: selective editing, coverage and analysis and even comment moderation. Of course the target of their news is the Israeli and US establishment. Frighten them about Erdogan and his AKP government with supposedly Erdogan’s anti-Israel (or even US) stance and his rapprochement with radical groups in the Middle East.

Then the two are required to either help the opposition to come to power or even push the military to topple Erdogan, something that would have been possible a few years ago, but seems difficult today.

And it is not secret that Israelis (and Hurriyet) wish for Erdogan’s fall. The Israelis even want the military to topple Erdogan. And now Hurriyet says Israeli hawks wish for Erdogan’s government ouster. One of the hawks even responds immediately through a comment and it is published. It shows how much they are in league with Hurriyet English. their intense interest even in comments points to something one can imagine.

Though Hurriyet English has many columnists, most of them are quite pathetic and can be ignored. One of them is Yusuf Kanli, the old man is quite always angry though he likes to call Erdogan the angry man. You can’t find an intellectual input from him. However, it has two sparring colleagues. The conservo-liberal (does it exist?) Mustafa Akyol plus the ideologue of nothing except “down with AKP” Burak Bedkil.

I say the ideologue of nothing because the man has one topic to talk about: AKP and how bad, illiberal, religious, anti-Semitic, Hamas linked ect it is. Any other thing on earth doesn't matter. I have been following him since 2007 and I must say the only other subject he has written about (and only few times after PKK attacks come Turkish military outposts) is how Kurdish are terrorists and that even if they are given more rights, how that won’t work because they want an independent homeland.

Ironically, Burak who is blindly is pro-Isreal fails to convince his Israeli comrades about the transgressions of PKK. They believe PKK is fighting for their people's rights but not Hamas. Failed mission indeed.

Someone told me he is an atheist, I don’t know about that, neither do I care about it but his articles aren’t stimulating except for the “volunteer squad” at Israel’s Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry which are supposed to post nodding comments to every pro-Israel article anywhere and run down the opposite.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has a squad to do the same. Will Burak feel disturbed by this nation that survives through propaganda since he likes to call Erdogan and AKP supporters a bunch of fools influenced by propaganda?

Israel bloggers and the volunteers recruited by the Foreign Ministry and also Diaspora Ministry focus on Turkey and actively post comments below news, articles and discussions on Israel especially Hurriyet. And Hurriyet aids them. For examples, though both Mustafa and Burak’s latest articles were posted online at the same time (both touching on Israel, the Gaza aid flotilla etc), as usual, the daily regulated the comments and released one negative comment from an Isreali to Mustafa’s article. On the other hand, it released seven positive comments from Isrealis to Burak’s one and one mildly negative.

Now you may ask, how do I know the commentators were Israelis or supporters of Israel and that the comments were regulated. It is easy to know that. I have already given you links where the Israeli Foreign and Diplomacy and Diaspora Ministries have recruited talkbackers to focus on “problematic” countries. And Turkey, Israeli’s number one ally in the region is “problematic” for Israel today due to Israel’s continued humiliation of the Palestinians and Turkey's protestation against that. Furthermore the ones who either comment or make them are either known, or betray themselves to be known.

Secondly, it is easy to know how many comments have been posted even if they weren’t published. Releasing a negative comment while holding the positive ones to be published later is something we know about. It is intended to influence the latter commentators. See the negative (the opposite) one and take cue. Follow that line or…you will be run down later. It achieves some results.

It is intended to discourage the writer, because the more he sees negative and hostile comments about his articles, the more he will be forced (supposedly) to either tone down or change the subject altogether. The other is to brainwash the later commentators because they will have to take cue from the first one(s). It works. I have singled out this issue because it has become a norm at Hurriyet and shame on you for belittling the intelligence of your readers.

I have no problem with someone supporting Israel (or repeatedly running down Turkey and the Turkish people as Burak does to convince I don't know whom) but I have a problem with someone doing at the expense of his/her nation and this is what Hurriyet English is doing in its desperate attempt to besmirch Erdogan and his government.

At the end of the day, it is the Turkish voters who will determine who will sit in T.C. Basbakanligi and not what hasbaraniks whether Turkish or Israelis write in Hurriyet English.

*Update*: Pm Erdogan lashes out at ‘black propaganda' sources