Backlash continues over photo from Erdoğan's return from US trip: 'This system must change'

Criticism continues regarding the interview President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held with journalists on the plane while returning from his US visit. Journalist Mehmet Çek, who is close to the government, reacted to the situation, stating that most of the journalists on the plane were figures close to the government. In a statement he made on social media, Çek emphasized that it was wrong to have only "pro-government" journalists present.

“DO THEY HAVE TO BE PRO-GOVERNMENT?”

Questioning whether all the journalists on the plane were as influential as those with high ratings, Mehmet Çek said, "Let's take one of the 'journalists on the plane' photos and look at it together; do the ratings of everyone in that photo add up to even one Cüneyt Özdemir? If they don't, why are they all on board while he is not?" Çek stated that journalists accompanying the head of state do not have to be solely pro-government, asking, "Do they necessarily have to be pro-government?"

“THIS SYSTEM MUST CHANGE”

Mehmet Çek, known for his closeness to President Erdoğan's Chief Advisor Mehmet Uçum, criticized the fact that questions on the plane were only given to pre-determined journalists, stating, "This system must change!" Çek also called on Communications Director Burhanettin Duran, saying, "I am calling for this system to be changed."

In his social media post, Çek stated the following:

"Ignore it as much as you want, play deaf.  

In a word, this is a 'disgrace'.  

No one has the right to subject our President, the most self-confident leader in the world, to such an issue. Let them go, brother, let whoever wants to ask whatever they want? Also, what is the point of filling the plane with names that no one knows, who have no standing in the public eye or the media? 

Let the names with the highest ratings accompany our President?   

Why are you shielding this leader, who has the most powerful conversational skills and human relations, and even a certain magic, just like the explanatory power of this world? On the contrary, you are depriving our President of the things he likes most? For God's sake, don't do this!  

Gentlemen, ladies, not only these habits of yours but the established communication order and all the so-called 'media elite' who thrive on this system have rotted. 

With the recent change, Mr. Burhanettin Duran, who is one of the respected academics and intellectuals of this country and has a very modest and transparent personality, has come to the Communications Directorate.  

Now, what is expected of him is to change this system from top to bottom. And he should start this change from the Communications Directorate building.   

'This is an organized operation and its target is the new Communications Director' 

Why did the mechanism, which seems to have been working in the same system for many years, explode now? Was this system waiting for a change of duty in the Communications Directorate to explode? Who prepared the questions or which of the journalists on the plane made this sale? Who leaked it? Questions like these need to be answered. 

Perhaps that is exactly why Burhanettin Duran should hurry to change the communication order and clean up the Communications Directorate.   

And finally; 'Journalists on the Plane'  

Although I have looked at these 'Journalists on the Plane' photos hundreds of times for years, I have not come across a familiar, well-known face except for one or two.  

Who are these friends? Are there any among them whose writing is read or whose words are listened to? For example, are there any who appear as the most watched this month or the most read this week in the metrics?   

Let's take one of the 'journalists on the plane' photos and look at it together; do the ratings of everyone in that photo add up to even one Cüneyt Özdemir? If they don't, why are they all on board while he is not? Do journalists who will accompany the head of state necessarily have to be pro-government?   

Let them go, brother, let them all accompany our President.  

Look, I'm saying something else; let them witness with their own eyes how we are welcomed in the places we go, the interest shown to our President in the United Nations campus and corridors, and the view of Turkey from the outside?   

The funnier part of the business is that even though they are known to be close to the government, rare journalists with good ratings in the media like Zafer Şahin, Taha Hüseyin Karagöz, Fuat Uğur, Cem Küçük, Ferhat Murat, and Adem Metan are not on the plane either?   

So they aren't there, and these aren't there? Who is there, man?   

Only the so-called 'media elite' who have cornered the channels 'closest' to the government, but have no social credibility, ratings, or standing, and who do part-time journalism and full-time business tracking, are on the plane.   

This system must change!  

Open the plane to competition just like politics!  

Let those with the highest ratings board, brother.  

Let those who have the capacity to deliver every word the President says to the widest audiences board.  

Friends; the etiquette/procedure of these things is clear. Journalists are taken to the President's side only for a certain period, and questions are asked on the subject if deemed necessary, etc. That's all. Then let them ask whatever they want, brother.   

What would they have asked our President returning from the US trip, for example?  

- THY Boeing agreement 

- F35 - F16 projects 

- Heybeliada Greek Orthodox School 

- Halkbank 

- Nuclear energy and Natural gas agreements.   

Well, let them ask?  

I'll even go one step further; a journalist who wouldn't ask these questions upon returning from an American trip should tear up their press card anyway!   

My last words to the relevant friends;  

Relax; the most self-confident, sincere leader of the political world is in your presence. Won't the man who explains things to the world be able to explain them to two journalists?"