Conspiracy theories in Turkey

Conspiracy theories are a prevalent feature of culture and politics in Turkey. Conspiracism is an important phenomenon in understanding Turkish politics.[1] This is explained by a desire to "make up for our lost Ottoman grandeur",[1] the humiliation of perceiving Turkey as part of "the malfunctioning half" of the world,[2] and a low level of media literacy among the Turkish population.[3]

The prevalence of conspiracy theorizing in Turkey

Roots and causes

Prominent Turkish author and journalist Mustafa Akyol describes the reason for the prevalence of conspiracy theorizing in Turkey as "it makes us feel important. If the world is conspiring against us, we must be really special. It is, I believe, the way we Turks make up for our lost Ottoman grandeur."[1] Turkish economist Selim Koru has pointed to the humiliation of perceiving Turkey as part of "the malfunctioning halve" of the world.[2]

Turkish consumers are the second-most media illiterate when compared to countries in Europe, leaving them especially vulnerable to fake news, a 2018 report released by the Open Society Institute said. A combination of low education levels, low reading scores, low media freedom and low societal trust went into making the score, which saw Turkey being placed above only Macedonia.[3] According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018, Turkey with some distance is the country with most made-up news reports in the world.[4]

Distinct features

A distinct feature of conspiracy theorizing in Turkey is that at the alleged command and control end of an alleged conspiracy scheme there are usually narrated to be state governments; this is due to en extreme state-centric worldview taught in the Turkish education system.[5]

Conspiracy theorizing since before the AKP era

Before the AKP era, conspiracy theorizing in Turkey was generally directed against "the West",[1] but also focused on Armenian Genocide denial.

Conspiracy theory that the Armenian genocide is invented

Turkish Armenian Genocide denialists typically argue the academic consensus of it being a genocide as anti-Turkish propaganda or as a conspiracy spread by the Armenians, instead claiming that it either did not occur or that it was somehow justified at the time.[6][7]

Conspiracy theorizing during the AKP era

Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) assumed power in 2002, conspiracy] theories have gradually grown to dominate public discourse in Turkey.[1] Mustafa Akyol summarizes the sutuation as follows: "Under Erdogan’s leadership, Turkey began to rise as a global power after a century of frailty. Since this New Turkey represents global justice for all the downtrodden, all the dark masters of the world are now alarmed by its glorious march. That is why they are using all their pawns against Turkey to defame, weaken, or destabilize it."[1]

The general "Mastermind" conspiracy theory narrative

In 2014, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan coined the term "mastermind" (Turkish: üst akıl) to denote the alleged command and control institution, somewhat ambiguously placed with the government of the United States, in a comprehensive conspiracy to weaken or even dismember Turkey, by orchestrating every political actor and action perceived hostile by Turkey.[8][9][1] Erdoğan as well as the Daily Sabah have often alleged that very different non-state actors — like the Salafi jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Islamist cult with political ambitions around Fethullah Gülen — were attacking Turkey at the same time in a well-coordinated campaign.[5]

A notable instance of promoting the "Mastermind" conspiracy theory was in February 2017 then Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek claiming that an earthquake in Çanakkale had been artificially generated by foreign powers.[10][11] In another example in November 2017, the Islamist newspaper Yeni Akit claimed that the fashion trend of "ripped denim" jeans would in fact be a means of communication, via specific forms of rips and holes, between agents of foreign states and their collaborators in Turkey.[12] Throughout 2017, the Turkish AKP government increasingly started to explicitly name the United States as the alleged "mastermind".[5]

According to a poll from April 2018, 42 percent of Turks, and 59 percent of AKP voters, saw the decline in the lira as a plot by foreign powers.[13] On 30 May, foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu claimed that the plunge of the lira would have been caused by an organized campaign masterminded abroad, adding that the conspiracy would include both "the interest rate lobby" and "some Muslim countries", which he however refused to name.[14] In August 2018, Erdoğan started using the formula of "the world fighting an economic war against Turkey".[15]

Conspiracy theories directed against Israel

In May 2012, a dead European bee-eater with an Israeli leg-band, used by naturalists to track migratory birds, was found by villagers near the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep. The villagers worried that the bird may have carried a micro-chip from Israeli intelligence to spy on the area and alerted local officials. The head of the Agriculture and Livestock Provincial Directorate in Gaziantep, Akif Aslanpay, examined the corpse of the bee-eater and stated that he found that "the nose of the bird is very different and much lighter than others" and that it "can be used for audio and video," which, "in the case of Israel, they do."[16] A counter-terrorism unit became involved before Turkey's agriculture ministry assured villagers that it is common to equip migratory birds with rings in order to track their movements. The BBC correspondent, Jonathan Head, ascribed the event to his view that "wildly implausible conspiracy theories take root easily in Turkey, with alleged Israeli plots among the most widely believed."[17]

In 2013, a kestrel carrying an Israeli foot band was discovered by villagers in the Elazığ Province, Turkey. Initially, medical personnel at Firat University identified the bird as "Israeli Spy" in their registration documents. After thorough medical examinations, including X-ray scans, the bird was determined to be carrying no electronic equipment.[18] No charges were filed and the kestrel was freed and allowed to continue its flight.[19]

The "War against Islam" conspiracy theory narrative

"War against Islam", also called the "War on Islam" or "Attack on Islam", is a conspiracy theory narrative in Islamist discourse to describe an alleged conspiracy to harm, weaken or annihilate the societal system of Islam, using military, economic, social and cultural means. The perpetrators of the conspiracy are alleged to be non-Muslims, particularly the Western world and "false Muslims", allegedly in collusion with political actors in the Western world. While the contemporary conspiracy theory narrative of the "War against Islam" mostly covers general issues of societal transformations in modernization and secularization as well as general issues of international power politics among modern states, the Crusades are often narrated as its alleged starting point. The English-language political neologism of "War on Islam" was coined in Islamist discourse in the 1990s and popularized as a conspiracy theory only after 2001.[20]

A related conspiracy theory, publicly advanced inter alia by the deputy chief of the AKP’s local branch in İstanbul’s Fatih district, Tolgay Demir in 2017, claims that Earth would in fact be flat, and that the concept of it as a planet would constitute a conspiracy by the Vatican, by Jesuits and by Freemasons.[21]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mustafa Akyol (12 September 2016). "The Tin-Foil Hats Are Out in Turkey". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 2017-01-09. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  2. 1 2 Selim Koru (21 June 2018). "How Nietzsche Explains Turkey". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2018-06-21. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  3. 1 2 Marin Lessenski (March 2018). "COMMON SENSE WANTED - Resilence to 'post-truth' and its predictors in the new media literacy index 2018" (PDF). Open Society Institute – Sofia. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-04-03. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  4. ↑ Nic Newman with Richard Fletcher, Antonis Kalogeropoulos, David A. L. Levy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (2018). "Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018" (PDF). Reuters Institute. p. 39. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-06-18. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  5. 1 2 3 Mustafa Akyol (9 January 2017). "Why Turkish government pushes 'global conspiracy' narrative". Al-Monitor. Archived from the original on 2017-01-10. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  6. ↑ "Why scholars say Armenian Genocide was genocide but Obama won't". Newsweek. 24 April 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  7. ↑ "A list of genocide denial websites". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 2017-02-22. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  8. ↑ Mustafa Akyol (31 October 2014). "The Middle East 'mastermind' who worries Erdogan". Al-Monitor. Archived from the original on 2017-01-07. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  9. ↑ Mustafa Akyol (19 March 2015). "Unraveling the AKP's 'Mastermind' conspiracy theory". Al-Monitor. Archived from the original on 2017-01-08. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  10. ↑ "Foreign powers performing 'earthquake tests' near Istanbul to destroy economy: Ankara mayor". Hurriyet Daily News. 7 February 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-02-07. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  11. ↑ "Turkish mayor suggests Gulen plotting earthquake to harm economy". Reuters. 7 February 2017.
  12. ↑ "Geheimbotschaften in der Jeanshose". tagesspiegel. 27 November 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-12-04. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  13. ↑ "Forty-two percent of Turks say lira's drop is foreign plot". Ahval. 18 May 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-05-20. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
  14. ↑ "Turkish FM accuses 'some Muslim countries' for trying 'to demolish economy'". Hurriyet Daily News. 30 May 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-07-19. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
  15. ↑ "Turkey is fighting an 'economic war'—against reality". Washington Post. 8 August 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-08-10. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
  16. ↑ Kiliç, Yusuf (May 9, 2012). "Gaziantep bird stand up!". Haberturk. Archived from the original on 2016-03-24. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Turkey villagers see Israeli spy in migratory bird". BBC. 16 May 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-10-17. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  18. ↑ Vela, Justin (July 26, 2013). "Turkey clears bird of spying for Israel". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2015-08-24. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Renegade bird accused of being an Israeli spy cleared after careful examination in Turkey". Hürriyet Daily News. July 25, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  20. ↑ John L. Esposito, Emad El-Din Shahin (September 2013). "The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics". Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2016-08-18. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  21. ↑ "AKP member claims earth is flat, anyone saying it's round is a 'freemason'". Turkish Minute. 2 September 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-12-04. Retrieved 2017-12-04.

Further reading

  • Pipes, Daniel (1998). The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0312176884.
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