Director of Communications Altun: "We see that Türkiye has been the country most affected by the global disinformation problem. Because this transformation that is taking place in favour of Türkiye's nation and national interests under the leadership of our President is intended to be halted. There is a very strong alliance of international actors working to undermine Türkiye's achievements, and their most fundamental instrument is disinformation."
Presidency's Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun said, "Our main goal is to build 'Türkiye's Communication Model', and we will continue to strive in this direction. All of these initiatives, I believe, are especially significant in light of our country's 100th anniversary. I believe they will make a substantial contribution to our country's 2023 and 2053 visions" at the joint kick-off meeting of the "National Strategic Communication Policy Paper" and "Combating Disinformation" workshops, which were held simultaneously in Istanbul with the participation of prominent figures from non-governmental organisations, think tanks, media, public institutions and academia.
Stating that they were being bombarded with disinformation, Director of Communications Altun said that disinformation, which substituted for information, was a fact that threatened the dominance of information in the modern era and was one of the most severe threats to modern society in which we lived.
The Director of Communications expressed that modern philosophy was built on the philosophy of enlightenment and that the philosophy of enlightenment was founded on the idea that knowledge was power, and added, "Today, we are all living in an age where knowledge is being dethroned and replaced by fake content. We, obviously, fight against this issue, and we must continue to do so. Regardless of the circumstances, we are centred on the truth, not on the information generated by the enlightened mind; we defend the truth and declare 'long live the truth'. We say truth is 'a value that must be fought for' no matter what happens. In this regard, we are making significant efforts to combat disinformation."
Emphasising that disinformation was not only Türkiye's problem, but a global one, Director of Communications Altun went on to say:
"I assert unequivocally that Türkiye is the country most targeted by disinformation campaigns on a global scale. Because Türkiye is a country that is sought to be restrained and whose march is sought to be halted as a result of the growth path it has followed over the previous two decades and its distinctiveness from the preceding time. At this time, Türkiye has become the target of disinformation efforts in this process via mobilisation of the lie industry's entire means of disinformation agenda. A study conducted by the Reuters Institute of Oxford University in 2018 is repeated every year, replaying this determination made for the first time in 2018. In its study of 2018, Türkiye was identified as the first country in the world to deal with fake news. According to this report, 50 out of 100 news reports are fabricated. Half of the news produced in Türkiye, addressing Türkiye, is fabricated. On the other hand, out of every 100 news reports, 15 in the United Kingdom, 12 in France, and 9 in Germany are fabricated. From this point of view, we see that Türkiye is the country that has experienced the global disinformation problem the most. Because this transformation in favour of Türkiye's nation and national interests under the leadership of our President is one that is sought to be stopped. There is a very dense alliance of international actors in order to eliminate the gains Türkiye has made, and their most basic tool is the policy of disinformation. Of course, we have been severely exposed to Türkiye's test of disinformation, particularly over the last eight years."
Noting that misinformation was predominantly utilised in modern democracies to sow social disorder, political instability, and economic crises, Director of Communications Altun said that all these tools were used to "create the possibility of external intervention".
Underlining that disinformation continued in an organised manner and that terrorist organisations, foreign states, sub-state actors, multinational companies and international non-governmental organisations could play an active role in that, Director of Communications Altun said, "Türkiye is actually the addressee and victim of the disinformation campaigns of all these actors I mentioned. In the process of combating these, the Presidency's Directorate of Communications has a central role. We have a duty of coordination."
"Preventing disinformation is a national duty"
Expressing that they witnessed how destructive disinformation campaigns could be and how much the lie industry could affect the political and social spheres eight years ago, during the Gezi uprising, Director of Communications Altun said:
"Remember those days. When we saw the fake news, we were horrified on the one hand, and on the other hand, we assumed that no one would ever trust them since they were self-evident lies. 'If the protests continue for another 48 hours, the European Union will make the decision to overthrow the government.' This news has been circulated many times on social media, seen by millions of people and unfortunately circulated as if it were real. The marathoners crossing the Bosphorus Bridge for the Eurasia Marathon were photographed from afar, and that photograph was served as the protesters who participated in the Gezi uprising. A political party shared this on its official account. Some of the examples we came across were simply mind-boggling. Once again, a photograph of a person injured on his back in a maritime accident in 2011 was served as evidence of so-called 'police violence' against the protesters in the Gezi uprising. Dozens of traffic accident photographs were projected as photographs taken during the protests. We have seen this not only in the national arena but also in the broadcasts of international, well-known media organisations. As you may remember, our President, the then Prime Minister, held the Respect to National Will rally in Kazlıçeşme with an incredible crowd, and its footage was used by CNN International with the words' Anti-government protests in Türkiye' written underneath. There are countless such examples. When we look at it, this trend started at that time continues today. Since then, a non-national opposition understanding that sees no problem in presenting itself as a socio-political entity has unfortunately started to 'make politics' based on such disinformative, manipulative and false content. Politics is not made by bombarding society with false content; politics is something real. The goal of politics is to serve the nation, as our President constantly emphasises, and so it is impossible to serve the nation's interests by disregarding the truth or injecting false content into it. We have seen and continue to see that this non-national attitude poisoned Türkiye's political climate in cooperation with the bombardment of international disinformation. It is one of the major threats to Türkiye's state and national security. Preventing this is our national duty."
Stating that disinformation is a wave that builds the ground for populism, racism, radicalism, and terrorism, as its impact can be seen in the global arena today, and makes way such processes, Director of Communications Altun emphasised that as its traces can be seen in Türkiye, disinformation politics is a process leading to ghettoization and polarisation in the social, political and cultural spheres and causing harm to the social structure, national unity and integrity at this point.
Underlining that fake news spreads six times faster than the truth does, Director of Communications Altun said that no matter what, they must establish their own strategies, perspectives and visions based on accurate, reliable and factual information.
Stating that they saw false, misleading and manipulative information circulating in many fields from politics to health, from culture to education, from security to foreign policy, Director of Communications Altun said, "These not only mean distorting the facts but also wasting the energy of our country, nation and state. I wish we didn't devote so much of our time and energy to countering the disinformative content and lies spread by non-national elements on the inside and anti-Türkiye elements on the outside. Then again, we have to do this. In addition to our other duties, we must immediately disclose these lies with accurate and reliable information because our nation's energy is valuable. Inshallah, Türkiye will be one of the most important global actors of the coming period with the energy of this noble nation."
"I believe that these initiatives have a special significance for the 100th anniversary of our Republic's founding and will contribute to the visions of 2023 and 2053"
Emphasising that it is more difficult to avoid fake content today than to reach fake content, Director of Communications Altun said, "Algorithms are constantly presenting you with fake content. Every day, it becomes more difficult to find accurate and reliable information. What our teachers always taught us when the internet first came out was that information is democratising, but accurate information is becoming a value more difficult to distinguish from other superstitions and nonsense. At that time, we were more optimistic and positive. Despite this, we found that the internet was not a democratising or pluralising environment. Instead, it increased ghettoization and exclusionary approaches, turned into an environment that reinforced xenophobia, racism, Islamophobia, anti-Islamism and hostility. We live in a world where identity wars have become a common feature. It's almost as though worthlessness has become the new normal."
"Our goal is to build 'Türkiye's Communication Model'”
Director of Communications Altun stated that Türkiye is a few steps ahead of the rest of the world in terms of vulnerability to attacks and added,
“Why? Because, unlike 20 years ago, Türkiye is no longer a market that is ‘predictable’, ‘steerable in any direction’ and ‘implements the offered recipes’. Türkiye has evolved into a country that professes to ‘produce’, ‘interfere in the regional developments', and ‘develop in accordance with its own priorities and programme’. Moreover, it has developed into a country that does not shy away from taking risks in doing all of these things. Therefore, our President has been clearly emphasising since the first day he took office the approach that is directed only by the support and will of the nation and that marches forward resolutely. We have achieved tremendous regional and global success as a result of this approach. Looking only at the previous two decades of foreign policy, we can see that our regional and global accomplishments are the losses of various international actors. This resolute march was intended to be halted due to this evident reality, and thus disinformative contents play a vital role.”
Director of Communications Altun remarked that they tried to establish the communication style and approach that was unique to the country under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and added, “Since its inception, our Directorate has worked tirelessly to develop ‘Türkiye’s Communication Model’, and we will work harder towards this end in the upcoming period. Our main goal is to develop ‘Türkiye’s Model in Communication’, build ‘Türkiye's Communication Model’, and we will continue to strive in this direction. All of these initiatives, I believe, have a special significance for the 100th anniversary of our Republic’s founding. I think they will make a substantial contribution to our country's 2023 and 2053 visions.”
Gökhan Yücel, Head of the Strategic Communication and Crisis Management Department at the Presidency's Directorate of Communications, also made a speech.
The workshops’ goals are to establish the strategic framework that will designate the roadmap and action plan for Türkiye's Communication Model, provide a unified discourse for strategic communication and the fight against systematic disinformation, and foster coordination among the public institutions. The workshops will also address the fact that the lack of unified discourse among public authorities, without a strategic perspective, is a key national security concern.
It was stated that 67 institutions and organisations would attend the workshops, which would be held concurrently in the form of a search conference, and that 15 sessions would be held in both workshops.
It was highlighted that contributions, views, suggestions and analyses of the participating institutions’ representatives would be compiled into reports. These reports would be evaluated in working groups to be formed and transformed into National Strategic Communication Policy Paper.
