Counter-propaganda should be based on facts, not misinformation

Two French weeklies carried headlines with their covers about President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The common point of the two pieces was the argument that Erdoğan is taking steps toward the position of a sultan. Since a book has recently been published in France with the title "Erdogan: le Nouveau Pere de la Turquie", (Erdoğan: Turkey's New Father), there is additional interest in Turkey. However, there is a huge amount of prejudice as well.

Both the L'Express and Valeurs Actuelles weeklies need to consult different views of Turkey, not only anti-Erdoğan circles, if they want to give an objective picture of the Turkish president and the country.

Anti-Erdoğan propaganda may be a useful tool for certain Western politicians regarding negotiations with their Turkish counterparts, but media should avoid becoming a hammer in the hands of politicians.

L'Express and Valeurs Actuelles chose their news sources entirely from anti-Erdoğan circles.

The positions of some circles obsessively trying to conduct perception operations against Erdoğan could be said to be some sort of anti-perceptions pathology.

This might lead one to produce misinformation, exaggerate or even lie to legitimize baseless accusations.

Not surprisingly, an adviser to former President Abdullah Gül, Ahmet Sever, was quoted in the L'Express, claiming that Erdoğan tried to prevent Gül from representing his position.

Sever seems to be the main source for the article in L'Express, which was published with a photo of Erdoğan and with the headline: "Erdogan: le danger Turc" (Erdoğan: Turkish danger).

Ignoring the partial remarks of the sources for the L'Express' 20-page article on Turkey, Sever, who is a former presidential adviser, mistakenly, if not deliberately, misinformed the French weekly.

Erdoğan himself announced Gül's candidacy with the following remarks: "Our candidate is my brother, Abdullah Gül."

And there was no change in presidential authorities while Gül was in office, but legal changes were made to bring direct presidential elections.

Even this short manipulative remark made Ahmet Sever and its publication without any verification questions the credibility of the article on Turkey prepared by the French weekly.

DISABLED YOUTH AND PUBLIC AWARENESS

Pamukkale University organized a festival, bringing sports together with the disabled young people.

Tansu Yagan, the coordinator of the festival, prepared a very well-organized stage where deaf students sang the national anthem in sign language and a group of young students with Down syndrome staged a very professional "sema."

The emotional ceremony held at Pamukkale University was another chain of events prepared to increase public awareness of disabled young people.

As one of the invitees to the ceremony, I promised myself to take responsibility for the well-being of disabled people.

Last week was marked as the week of the disabled and many events were organized in many places to increase public awareness in this vein.