Director of Communications Altun: "Unfortunately, Israel is also conducting a dirty disinformation campaign in parallel and simultaneously with the massacres it is committing as a blatant war crime. Even if they disagree with Israel, they desire that humanity and the international community at least witness this atrocity in silence. They want everyone to be preoccupied with the agenda of lies and disinformation and not hear the heartbreaking cries in Gaza."
Presidency's Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun attended the 3rd International Communication Sciences Symposium (ICOMS) organised by Sakarya University (SAÜ) and TÜBİTAK.
Pointing out that globalisation has been associated with global terrorism since the 2000s, global financial crises since the 2010s and global health and food crises since 2020, Altun stated that in the last three years, first with the pandemic, then with the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and now with the brutality displayed by Israel in the heart of the Middle East, humanity has awakened from the "dream of enlightenment" in which it was immersed after the Second World War and has seen that the solutions imposed by the Western order of international relations are not beneficial for the greater good.
"Türkiye strives to be a stabilising power"
Altun stated that the Western colonial order is the root cause of global injustice, which is the most important problem for the peoples of the region and all humanity today, and that the fundamental dynamic that sustains this order is the "Western dependency system".
Director of Communications Altun stated that, "Türkiye's struggle in the global arena is the struggle to put an end to this injustice. In this difficult time marked by uncertainties and crises, Türkiye strives to be a stabilising power beyond being an island of stability," and pointed out that this geography has faced novel forms of chaos since the 2010s, that the region has been destabilised by the so-called "Arab Spring", and that it has become a centre of terrorism, fanaticism, radicalism, fragmented societies, failed states, new coup strategies, mass migration movements, and massacres.
Noting that Türkiye has also faced severe tests and challenges in this process, Director of Communications Altun said that the foreign interventions it has encountered over the past decade have been essentially malevolent attempts to prevent Türkiye from becoming a global actor, which has succeeded in becoming a regional power.
Director of Communications Altun said, "Terrorist attacks, coup-like occupation attempts, and uprisings—along with other foreign-backed interventions—were implemented with the explicit intention of impeding Türkiye's capacity development during a period of global crisis and the establishment of a global presence as an assertive actor. However, thanks to strong political leadership and stability, these foreign interventions were neutralised, and the systematic threats we faced were eliminated."
"Türkiye is one of the countries most exposed to disinformation"
Noting that communication has become the most important area for competition among states, Director of Communications Altun stated that it is one of the strategic areas where investments are made in this context and that Türkiye has implemented investments in infrastructure and superstructure to distinguish itself in this competition and both the public and private sectors have developed substantial capabilities.
Director of Communications Altun stated that these investments and developments stemmed from the need to establish the unity of discourse of the state so that it is not open to external interventions and manipulations, explain Türkiye's theses to the world public in the most accurate and rapid way, ensure mutual and effective state-nation communication, effectively fight against increasing black propaganda campaigns, and counter the virus of disinformation that threatens democracy, human rights and individual freedoms.
Emphasising that Türkiye is one of the countries most exposed to disinformation, which is a problem for all humanity, Director of Communications Altun said, "The reason for this is, undoubtedly, the fact that Türkiye has been strengthening, asserting its power and challenging the Western colonial order."
Director of Communications Altun stated that the only antidote to the toxic and destructive effects of disinformation, which have reached the level of a global crisis that needs to be tackled seriously, that corrupt democracy, push societies into a spiral of uncertainty and target individual rights and freedoms is the truth itself.
"The murderers spewing death in Gaza will be held accountable"
Director of Communications Altun noted that during the earthquake centred in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, which was described as the "Disaster of the Century", they witnessed firsthand how dangerous the problem of disinformation was and that the bulletins published by the Directorate of Communication at that time had amassed a volume equivalent to a book.
Stressing that the human tragedy in Gaza differs in content but is similar in nature, Director of Communications Altun said, "Israel is committing war crimes in front of the eyes of the whole world. Israel is exhibiting the most abhorrent and atrocious examples of fascism and racist imperialism. Let us not forget that in the first half of the 20th century, millions of people were murdered by official state agents in concentration camps and death chambers in the heart of Europe. Those murderers have not been forgotten, and they have been cursed ever since. Today's murderers will not be forgotten either. The murderers spewing death in Gaza will be held accountable. They will face the same condemnation from the actual courts of law once the system of global justice is established, just as they have been condemned by common values.
Stating that Israel is also conducting a dirty disinformation campaign in parallel and simultaneously with the massacres it is committing as a blatant war crime, Director of Communications Altun added:
"Just as Israel wants to turn a city, a town, into rubble and make it uninhabitable with its cruel attacks, it is trying to leave us with a wreck, a ruin in the field of truth. Israel attempts to legitimise and obscure its atrocities against children, men, women, the elderly, journalists, and healthcare professionals—in short, innocents—in Gaza and Palestine through systematic disinformation campaigns. Even if they disagree with Israel, they desire that humanity and the international community at least witness this atrocity in silence. They want everyone to be preoccupied with the agenda of lies and disinformation and not hear the heartbreaking cries in Gaza.
But they should know that we know very well which actors are trying to implement their dirty plans, both in Gaza and Palestine and in our immediate geography, and we are determined to fight them to the end. We clearly see which groups are targeting the Islamic world in Gaza and which are trying to use this issue for their domestic and foreign political interests. At this point, the Republic of Türkiye is fulfilling its humanitarian and foreign policy responsibilities, and it is exerting an intense effort to do more. Our stance as a nation in favour of peace, stability, and justice in our region and in the world has been and will continue to be very strong with regard to Gaza."
''We have exposed more than 100 deliberate fake news stories about Israel's attacks on Gaza''
Emphasising that Türkiye, which is a globally influential power, is an indispensable actor, especially for the region at the point of solving crises, Director of Communications Altun said that Türkiye's emergence as a stabilising actor both in the region and globally is not a political discourse and that many countries and international actors from west to east have now accepted this fact.
Director of Communications Altun said, "We are trying to fight for the truth, which we see as a complementary element of this role, as much as we can in the field of communication," and provided the following examples of this struggle for truth with regard to the events in Gaza:
"As a result of the ongoing work of our Centre for Combating Disinformation, we have exposed more than 100 deliberate fake news stories about Israel's attacks on Gaza since October 7 and provided the truth. During this process, we have released five different 'Palestine Exclusive Disinformation Bulletins'. In this context, we refuted the statements of the US Department of State Arabic Language Spokesperson, which contained false information in order to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza, with UN evidence, and the entire international media had to accept this. Furthermore, we identified and exposed, one by one, the lies propagated by the former minister and Israeli Parliament member by inserting irrelevant subtitles into video footage. On another occasion, we detected disinformation from Netanyahu's spokesperson, a well-known Israeli journalist, and Israeli army spokespersons speaking to the American media, and we quickly informed the global public of the truth because speed is of the essence in the fight against disinformation. Unfortunately, if you are late, lies replace the truth, and disinformation takes its place."
Altun pointed out that disinformation in the context of the tragedy in Gaza is now irresponsibly produced and spread by very high-level state officials, even by heads of state, and said, "Atrocities and massacres in Gaza, which are sought to be legitimised, are attempted to be transformed into a foreign policy trump card in the hands of actors with nefarious intentions for the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East via disinformation campaigns. They recognise that the current disinformation problem has a significant impact on societies', institutions', and individuals' ability to access reliable information and make sound decisions, resulting in despair, uncertainty, and a sense of chaos. This presents a barrier to both resistance and action."
Altun stated that recent history demonstrated that public perception created by distortions in the field of communication and media provided legitimacy even for a state to invade another state, recalling that in early 2003, misleading information that Iraq possessed chemical weapons laid the groundwork for the American invasion by convincing the public opinion.
Director of Communications Altun pointed out that Israel now wants to manage a similar process regarding Gaza and said:
"We have all seen disinformation campaigns full of insane lies such as '40 babies were beheaded by Hamas' or 'Palestinians disembowelled a woman' during this period. These campaigns were attempts to legitimise occupation, exploitation and massacre. Praise be to Allah; thanks to the efforts of our friends, we were able to immediately refute these disinformative contents and expose them in the international media. This ultimately put pressure on Israel following its exposure in the international media, but Israel continues to recklessly and regrettably carry out its massacres with Western support. All of these are essentially fake content put forward as part of Israel's pre-planned communication strategy for attacks on schools, hospitals, civilian settlements, etc., and we will continue to bring to the attention of the global public opinion that these are fake and disinformation."
''The struggle of President Erdoğan is a struggle to walk against the oppressor in the name of humanity"
Director of Communications Altun noted that disinformation has become a far more destructive weapon than it was during the times when the conventional media order predominated and that perception management is now done much more systematically via social media channels and other virtual networks in addition to TV and newspapers.
Altun stated that "Individuals who are imprisoned in their own echo chambers with algorithms and artificial intelligence technologies and who are subjected to content moderation against their will are distanced from their own reality, and they may face false and misleading information," and pointed out that the posts of those who voice the truth on these channels are automatically deleted, and their accounts can be suspended.
Stating that he would like to conclude his remarks with Rollo May's words, "To live into the future means to leap into the unknown, and this requires a degree of courage for which there is no immediate precedent and which few people realise," Altun noted:
"Courage should be the primary emotion that will liberate us and save us from the clutches of global injustice. What is courage? Courage is 'the ability, the capacity to walk, to move forward despite despair'. The struggle of Türkiye and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of the Republic of Türkiye is a courageous struggle to walk against the oppressor in the name of humanity, despite the despair all over the world. I hope that our symposium will be fruitful for the scientific community and our country, with the hope that the right and truth will prevail over the oppression and oppressor."
