Presidency's Director of Communications Altun stated, "Israel is using a fascist propaganda method. Today's fascists repeat the fascist propaganda methods of yesterday, and those who victimised Jews in the past are trying to victimise Muslims today. Moreover, today, the victim is expected to condemn himself and the world is expected to remain silent against this persecution."
Director of Communications Altun addressed the International Strategic Communication Summit (Stratcom Summit'23), which was organised for the third time this year by the Presidency's Directorate of Communications, wherein he remarked that STRATCOM is not only the name of a summit they organise once a year but also the name of a brand that enables various events such as STRATCOM FORUM, STRATCOM YOUTH and various publications such as STRATCOM PODCAST, STRATCOM BOOKS throughout the year, both in Türkiye and abroad.
Saying that their goal is very clear, Director of Communications Altun informed that they want to transform Türkiye into a global hub of interaction in the field of strategic communication.
Explaining that, in line with this goal, they are trying to exchange experience and knowledge with individuals and organisations that are successful in the field of strategic communication in the international arena, Director of Communications Altun laid out the theme of this year's summit as "Countering Hybrid Threats," encompassing three main concepts: stability, security and solidarity.
Noting that the world is currently on the brink of a major shift, Director of Communications Altun went on to say:
"We have come to the end of the world as we know it! Yes, Immanuel Wallerstein said so, and he added, 'I believe that we are in the middle of a dark forest and that we do not have enough clarity about which way we should go. The modern world system, as a historical system, is in a fatal crisis and is unlikely to survive for another fifty years.
Although the collapse of communism in 1989 is thought to mark the triumph of liberalism, I believe it marks the final collapse of liberalism as the defining geo-culture of the world system.' Time will tell how true Wallerstein's dire prediction is, but it is an obvious fact that especially in the last 20 years, the system created after the Second World War, with its constituent actors, institutions, mechanisms, and norms, has been in great turbulence."
Director of Communications Altun described the era we live in today as surrounded by many challenges and uncertainties, such as wars, conflicts, humanitarian tragedies, global terrorist threats, nuclear risks, food, health, and energy crises.
Director of Communications Altun continued by pointing out that during the pandemic, the world experienced a major global governance crisis and that it faced an even bigger crisis regarding global production following the pandemic.
"We could not produce an effective global combat mechanism against natural disasters"
Director of Communications Altun observed that while states and governments were attempting to find solutions to the deepening global inflation caused by the pandemic, we witnessed together the persistent weakness and ineffectiveness of the global economic cooperation channels. Altun said, "Again, we have seen that an effective global combat mechanism against natural disasters, which have reached to an extent that threatens human life on our planet with climate change and global warming, could not be produced. And this was despite the warnings of scientists for many years. The international system has not only been incapacitated in the face of newly emerging global crises. It has also been inadequate in the face of destabilising conflicts in which the international system has traditionally maintained their presence."
Director of Communications Altun recounted how the world first became aware of this in the last 10-15 years during the Syrian crisis, saying, "In this crisis, we witnessed how international actors and international organisations were helpless in the face of civil war and humanitarian tragedies.
The war between Russia and Ukraine started 21 months ago, and this showed how helpless the international system is in the face of inter-state conflicts."
Emphasising how the events that have transpired in Gaza over the last 47 days, namely Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip that are devoid of any conscience and sense of humour, have revealed a very bitter picture, which has justified the crisis in the international system, Director of Communications Altun said:
"The crisis of the international system, which was previously discussed at the level of elites, has today turned into an ordeal experienced at the level of peoples. We must put it simply and clearly that we are confronted with a paradox, a contradiction. On the one hand, the real world is rapidly globalising; on the other hand, the mechanisms built in the context of global governance are becoming dysfunctional day by day. While interdependencies in inter-societal relations are deepening, crises, threats, and problems are also globalising. In this very environment, a new challenge has been added to conventional conflicts and global crises."
Indicating that the new challenge is called hybrid threats, which are targeting all societies of the world, Director of Communications Altun went on to state that hybrid threats stand out as new methods of competition, struggle, and war in today's world.
Director of Communications Altun affirmed that when they talk about hybrid threats, they are talking about "wars of tutelage", "political manipulations", "economic pressures", "irregular migrations", "manipulations of international law", "terrorism", "cyber attacks", "information races", and "disinformation wars", and that the one we are faced with is a type of threat that combines conventional, irregular and asymmetric actions.
Noting that they are talking about strategies and tactics that aim to maliciously manipulate political decision-making mechanisms, security architecture, social cohesion, cultural existence, and communication processes, Director of Communications Altun said, "This is a threat that conventional and institutional tools, concepts and methods cannot counter. In order to counter hybrid threats, we must first and foremost reform our national security and defence mechanisms and develop flexible and multifaceted countering strategies. The classical conception of power of the modern period is no longer sufficient to explain today's power struggles."
"However, information has turned into one of the lost values of today"
Stressing that communicators are positioned at a critical point in this chaotic structure, Director of Communications said, "The jewel of communicators is information. However, information has turned into one of the lost values of today. Since Sun Tzu's famous work The Art of War, 'information' has been recognised as one of the most strategic elements of the battlefield. On the other hand, since the invention of the printing press, information has become one of the main reference points in the institutionalisation of modern nation-states and ideologies."
Informing that in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the development of mass media, information wars became a critical element in the competition between states in the international arena, Director of Communications Altun continued that, especially with the transition from analogue to digital culture in mass communication, the speed and comprehensiveness of information technologies have increased, and this has transformed information into a much more powerful and effective instrument of power.
Director of Communications Altun noted that initially, information warfare was expected to provide tactical and operational advantages in military terms, but over time, it has come to be seen as a means of achieving strategic gains, adding:
"Today, states and non-state actors actively try to use information tools before military means in regional and global conflicts and crises. However, for a considerable period of time, these instruments have not been used fairly and for the sake of truth, and they have often been abused. And in these processes, disinformation, misinformation, information pollution and manipulation become the main source of reference."
Remarking that today, disinformation campaigns not only cause inflation of false and misleading news but also lead to a deep crisis of truth, Director of Communications Altun continued, saying that the crisis of truth is based on the normalisation of the lie, the trivialisation of the truth, and the crisis of truth brings about, above all, a crisis of democracy, the effects of which are clearly felt in the international arena.
Director of Communications Altun further noted that the crisis of truth experienced by individuals, societies, and states reveals a deep crisis of trust in interpersonal and inter-societal relations, increases the potential for tension and conflict in the international arena, and erodes the feelings of social unity and solidarity.
"An order of exploitation is being established in cyberspace"
Noting that all the hybrid threats they are discussing today and tomorrow have achieved their current positions thanks to the dominance of the technologies used, Director of Communications Altun said, "We are all aware that digital technologies strengthen hybrid threats despite their relatively democratising effects that spread information to the grassroots. Digital technologies are turning into instruments that jeopardise the public order of countries and the equal and robust participation of individuals in the public sphere. Digital technology companies are becoming new foci of global power, and an order of exploitation is being established in cyberspace."
Director of Communications Altun stated that digital fascism, which has gained a deep-rooted place in this expanding field, threatens the democracy, stability, and security of countries.
Director of Communications Altun underlined that one of the primary objectives of hybrid threats is to destabilise the socio-political and socio-economic spheres and that the main fuel for this process is the implementation of systematic disinformation policies.
Stating that the entire world has clearly seen the devastating effects of systematic disinformation policies during the pandemic, Altun said, "We also saw this during the Russia-Ukraine war. However, we see the extent to which systematic disinformation policies distort the truth much more clearly in the Gaza massacre that has been taking place before the eyes of the world since October 7. Today, the entire world public opinion is the target of Israeli hybrid threats and systematic disinformation policies."
Director of Communications Altun said, "Edward Said was, of course, well aware of how Israel manipulates the international media for its own ideological interests when he said years ago, 'Do not accept any pre-packaged information as a plant, no message is exempt from the ideological process'," and added:
"Edward Said was also aware that when it comes to the Palestinian reality, our problem is not limited to the current campaigns of lies and disinformation attacks in the Western media. According to Said, historical stereotypes in the Western cultural imagination continue to manipulate modern Western public opinion's perception of Palestine.
We see this today as well. Said's books Orientalism, The Question of Palestine, and Covering Islam are invaluable works that deal with this reality in all its dimensions. Indeed, for years, the Israeli elites have used the anti-Islamic sentiment in the modern Western imagination as material for their own illegitimate struggle. What did Ben Gurion say? 'We fear nothing but Islam.' And what did Yitzhak Rabin say? 'Our enemy is Islam.' I would also like to remind you of the words of Shimon Peres: 'We will not feel safe until we are free from the sword of Islam'."
Director of Communications Altun stated that, unfortunately, the current versions of these attempts to antagonise, marginalise and demonise are much more severe, much more penetrating, and much more destructive than when Said wrote the works he mentioned, adding, "The goal is no longer simply to spread false news, but to create insensitivity to the truth and to disrupt the relationship between the truth and human beings. Israel is trying to manipulate the world into believing that 'there are no Palestinians,' as an Israeli Prime Minister said years ago. The Palestinians are first criminalised and then dehumanised, and in this way, they are to be exterminated. Moreover, this crime is demanded to be ignored."
Emphasising that the most important collaborators of this process are giant Western media companies and social media platforms, Director of Communications Altun said, "In line with this endeavour, many countries and actors are subjected to overt or covert blackmail by Israel. They accuse you of anti-Semitism when you talk about Israel's murders. When you defend the right to life of Palestinians, they claim that you advocate the destruction of Israel. When you speak out against the massacre in Gaza, they can accuse you of being insensitive to the Holocaust."
Stating that in order to reinforce its colonial narratives, the Israeli army sends concept sets, dictionaries, and so-called true-false tables to media companies in the West, Director of Communications Altun said, "On the other hand, Israel is brutally killing journalists in Gaza. Since October 7, Israel has killed 64 members of the media in the Gaza Strip. In this process, Israel is using a fascist propaganda method to murder journalists, healthcare professionals, women, and children, as well as the truth."
Director of Communications Altun said that Theodor Adorno, who himself was a German Jew who had to flee from Hitler's persecution, mentions some of the characteristics of fascist propaganda in his 1946 essay "Antisemitism and Fascist Propaganda," adding, "Adorno says, 'Above all, fascist propaganda does not attack real opponents, but ghosts, bogeymen, myths.' In the past, fascist propaganda targeted communists and Jews. Now, Zionist actors, who are the global representatives of fascism, bogey Islam and Muslims and engage in a systematic black propaganda activity against them. According to Adorno, the second characteristic of fascist propaganda is that it is based on cheap rhetoric instead of discursive logic and that it makes serial speeches independent of reality by means of association. This is exactly how Israel's propaganda machine works today, the way Adorno described it in 1946."
"We will not applaud this persecution"
Director of Communications Altun added, "Israel is totally practising a fascist propaganda method. Today's fascists repeat the fascist propaganda methods of yesterday, and those who victimised Jews in the past are trying to victimise Muslims today. Moreover, today, the victim is expected to condemn himself and the world is expected to applaud the persecution. We will not remain silent against this persecution, and we will not applaud this persecution as expected. We will continue our struggle for truth and justice under the leadership of our President against this prosecution, with all our strength and efforts."
Director of Communications Altun said that as strategic communicators, they must build a shield of resistance against hybrid threats, and they consider this meeting a valuable initiative and that conventional methods and tools are ineffective against hybrid threats.
Stating that we need strategic communication tools to serve peace, security, stability and solidarity at the global level, Director of Communications Altun said, "We need global cooperation and experience sharing in the fields of combating disinformation, crisis communication, public relations, public diplomacy, civil preparedness, awareness raising and strengthening joint coordination. Obviously, the most fundamental value in this process should be human orientation. With the 'Türkiye Communication Model' we have developed as Türkiye, we strive to establish a people-oriented communication environment and institutionalise a strategic communication vision that puts truth, transparency, and accountability at the centre."
Underlining that hybrid threats aim to eliminate the borderlines between peace, crisis, conflict, and war, Director of Communications Altun said, "In order to protect these borderlines, it is essential that states, international organisations and civil society organisations advocating for rights act in international cooperation and coordination. Diplomacy, defence, security, communication, intelligence and technology experts at national, regional and global levels should act in cooperation."
Director of Communications Altun added that it is precisely for these reasons that they have launched this platform, STRATCOM, the Strategic Communication Summit, and they are making efforts to institutionalise strategic communication in a global context.
Director of Communications Altun stated that they will continue to strengthen their strategic communication tools in order to strengthen the infrastructure to inform their citizens and the world accurately and timely through reliable sources, to take effective measures against disinformation, and to fight against hybrid threats.
Underlining his belief that this endeavour will contribute to building a more just, peaceful, resilient and stable international community against wars, conflicts and threats that manifest themselves at the regional and global levels, Director of Communications Altun said that he is convinced that the STRATCOM platform will increase international cooperation opportunities as it has done in the past years.
Developments on the axis of combating hybrid threats are discussed
At the summit held at Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel Conference Centre, Presidency's Director of Communications Altun visited the booths set up in the area with Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan. Director of Communications Altun examined the robot dog by passing through the digital tunnel set up at the entrance of the hall.
Booths were set up at the summit by the Directorate of Communications, Anadolu Agency, TRT, Press Advertisement Agency and Turkish Airlines.
At the summit, where the Cyber Security Workshop took place, the metaverse area of the Presidency of Communications was exhibited.
The summit discusses the latest developments in the strategic communication ecosystem on the axis of combating hybrid threats. 60 speakers from nearly 30 countries are participating in the summit, which attracts nearly 3,000 local and foreign participants.
The International Strategic Communication Summit will end tomorrow.