Propaganda Leading Up to the Election

Black propaganda, the most widely adopted form of propaganda, aims to mobilize the masses by supporting the interests of those in power through fake news, slander, distortion, misdirection, deception, intrigue, and similar practices.

The first person who comes to mind when propaganda is mentioned is German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels established the principles of propaganda that would later be applied in many places around the world and carried out the most original implementations of these principles.

“As we see the mental laziness of people, we can do whatever we want. Tell a lie, someone will surely believe it. If not, continue the lie. The public believes big lies more quickly than small ones. Focus only on your opponent and blame them for everything that goes wrong. In propaganda, the judiciary is an important tool. The judiciary should not be the master of the state, but the servant of state policy.” These are Goebbels' most well-known words.

Joseph Goebbels organized a major smear campaign against communists and Jews, ultimately ensuring their destruction.

Even though the 6th German Army surrendered in Stalingrad, he did not hesitate to inform the German people that they had won the Battle of Stalingrad.

Although 25,000 people died as a result of the bombing of the German city of Dresden by the American and Royal Air Forces between February 13-15, 1945, he added a zero to this figure and announced the death toll to the world as 250,000. Thus, he concealed the murder of millions of Jews and prisoners of war and ensured that the Dresden attack was labeled as an act of war terror in the world.

In 1945, when the Second World War ended and the Russians reached the gates of the capital, Berlin, the German people still thought they were about to win the war.

After the transition to multi-party life in Turkey, the propaganda of creating an internal enemy has definitely been adopted.

Attacking non-Muslims on September 6-7, 1955, burning and destroying homes, workplaces, schools, and churches; the attacks carried out against Alevis in Kahramanmaraş, Çorum, and Sivas; and finally, the suffering inflicted upon certain segments of society after the September 12, 1980 coup are unfortunately the grave consequences of this policy in our recent past.

Since the 1946 elections, parties have chosen the path of criticizing and smearing the single-party era, and consequently the Republican People's Party (CHP), instead of explaining their own promises.

When we come to the present day, we see that nothing has changed and that the single-party era is still being used as a primary propaganda tool. We watch with sadness as someone comes out every day to insult the cherished memory of our great leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the achievements of the republic.

We are curiously waiting for the realization of the promises made in the 2023 presidential and parliamentary general election propaganda, such as that we would land on the moon in 2024, build our own domestic aircraft, and meet our natural gas needs with the rich natural gas resources found in the Black Sea.

We understand that similar things will be used as propaganda material as the 2024 local government elections approach.

With the self-confidence in the saying, “If we said we built a four-lane highway to the moon, this nation would believe it,” we will see the promises that were not fulfilled after the election being lined up one after another again.

We will be told that the blame for everything that goes wrong belongs to the opposition, and the credit for everything that goes well belongs to the government.

The news about CHP Chairman Özgür Özel kissing the hand of Kurdish-origin soprano Pervin Chakar will show that the government will not abandon its rhetoric of accusing the CHP of collaborating with terrorists.

We understand that Kurdish-origin citizens and secularists will be on the marginalization list, the criticism of the “CHP mentality” will not end, and corruption, poverty, and bans will be covered up with the rhetoric of internal and external enemies.

One of the two pillars of propaganda is lies, and the other is distortion. While the nation is struggling with economic problems and enduring incredible hardships like never before in the history of Turkey, we watch with astonishment that the government changes the agenda very effectively, and unfortunately, the opposition is dragged along behind it.

While there are so many problems peaking, tabloid news about constitutional amendments, the 50+1 requirement in the presidential election, fraud, usury, and money laundering are being discussed for days.

The Turkish people see that the government's promises will never be fulfilled and that the real problem is poverty, corruption, and bans.

For this reason, we expect opposition parties to voice these problems and explain how they will solve them, instead of following the artificial agendas created and seeking reconciliation with the past.

It is our greatest hope as a citizen that our nation, which is truly tired of populist policies, will listen to different discourses for once and that election propaganda based on distortion and lies will not be effective in this election.