The supercut was compiled and published online this week by sonvesayet.com, a website whose name means "the final tutelage," which is a reference to the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The video is composed of dozens of clips in which Erdoğan insults the Hizmet movement, which is inspired by the teachings of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Most of the material in the video is from after what is known as the Dec. 17 corruption scandal, which the current president dismissed as a plot to unseat him. He accused alleged followers of Gülen in the bureaucracy of orchestrating the scandal and went on a rampage afterward, calling followers of the Hizmet movement leeches, blood-sucking vampires and parasites.
Since December, a large-scale propaganda campaign has been conducted against the Hizmet movement and Gülen by some circles close to the AK Party government. The corruption scandal that erupted that month in 2013 implicated three Cabinet ministers' sons, many state bureaucrats and some well-known businessmen.
Published on Today's Zaman, 13 September 2014, Saturday
