Why do the AKP media always lie?

Emre Uslu

Since a serious graft scandal got underway on Dec. 17, the pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) media have been publishing endless lies on a daily basis.

These days, the pro-AKP media are well known for their contradictions. Their only desire is to run headline stories -- whether fabricated or genuine, it doesn't make any difference -- about the Gülen movement. In order to do that, they don't hesitate to reach out to their former foes and run their allegations as headline stories.

The question of what motivates pro-AKP media outlets to constantly attack the Gülen movement is easy to answer. Their primary motivation is money and power. If it weren't for the power and money they're getting from the AKP government, they would not be running such a campaign. They would even turn against the AKP government if they saw they weren't getting enough support from them. Yeni Safak, for instance, has published reporting critical of the government when their expectations came into conflict with the administration. Once the paper achieves its “aim,” it shuts up and goes back to supporting the government.

All in all, everyone agrees that the pro-AKP media outlets cannot be considered “media outlets” in a traditional sense; rather, they should be considered propaganda rags.

Given the fact that pro-AKP media outlets have voluntarily converted themselves into propaganda rags for obvious reasons -- money and power -- it becomes clear that they publish their stories to spread the word of their supreme leader and support the AKP government.

One question, however, remains unanswered: Why do they constantly lie?

Here are a few points that explain why they constantly lie.

First, despite the fact that the state bureaucracy is in the hands of the AKP government, they cannot find any tangible evidence against the Gülen movement to publish. I am sure the number one priority handed down to the bureaucracy is to find evidence to demonize the Gülen movement. Yet they fail to find evidence against the movement because the movement plays by the rules. As they cannot find genuine evidence, the propaganda rags of the AKP government have no choice left but to lie.

Second, the smear campaign against the Gülen movement is a form of psychological warfare. Such psychological warfare is run by the state security apparatus. Psychological warfare campaigns usually have two aims: maintaining public support and making the opposition desperate.

It is a fact that psychological warfare campaigns have always been dirty in Turkey. Back in 1990, similar psychological warfare campaigns were waged against Kurds who supported the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). One of the lies that was circulated at that time was that the PKK was an Armenian organization and had nothing to do with the Muslim Kurds.

Of course, all Kurds were aware of the fact that the PKK is a Kurdish organization. The aim of the psychological warfare campaign was not to convince the Kurds, however, but to maintain support among Turks.

A similar logic is at work in the new psychological warfare campaign of the AKP government. Of course all the Gülen supporters and the public at large know the facts about the Gülen movement. The aim of the campaign is not to convert Gülen supporters into AKP supporters, but to keep the AKP base intact.

Third, the propaganda rags of the AKP have to lie constantly because once they stop publishing stories about the Gülen movement, they'll have to face the deadly reality: the corruption, authoritarianism and failures of the government.

Moreover, there is not much time left before the presidential election. Thus their priority is to dominate public debate, whether with lies or not, and prevent people from discussing corruption and the future of Turkey.

Once they stop producing lies about the Gülen movement they'll have to face the truth, which would hurt them badly in terms of the money that they earn and the power that they hold over their competitors. In order to avoid this reality, they have to lie.

Publıshed on Sunday's Zaman, 11 May 2014, Sunday