WikiLeaks release of AK Party emails with no concrete content mocked in Turkey

WikiLeaks has published its much-anticipated first batch of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) emails, consisting of 294,548 email bodies, along with thousands of attachments, all of which were sent between 2010 and July 2016. Following the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, WikiLeaks had announced that they would publish the leaked emails, which supposedly "both helps and harms AKP [AK Party]." On their website, WikiLeaks explained that the emails "come from akparti.org.tr, the AKP's primary domain" and that the domain was "mostly used for dealing with the world, as opposed to the most sensitive internal matters." Moreover, WikiLeaks claim that they have verified the material and the source, who is allegedly not affiliated with the ones behind the coup attempt, a rival party or state.

The contents of the much discussed emails, however, do not seem as crucial as it was suggested by WikiLeaks. A preliminary search indicates that most of the emails comprise of Google Groups notifications, newsletters from media outlets and spam.

Beside these, there are numerous emails from Turkish citizens, demanding an improvement to their working conditions, or just pointing towards certain general or personal issues. In one of such emails, sent on Dec. 1, 2013 to then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a Turkish citizen urges for an improvement to the security forces employees' rights and their monthly salary. Similarly, an animal rights activist, in their email sent on Dec. 10, 2013, urges then Prime Minister Erdoğan to cease the import of furs from China, reiterating Erdoğan's statement "wearing fur is cruelty." Moreover, there were various emails from young Turkish citizens who were seeking the help of the state and party officials to get married.

On a side note, the leaked emails also contain certain attachments including, but not limited to, poems written by Turkish citizens, photographs of a Turkish dessert, irmik, which was distributed to the people by a local party branch, digital scans of miscellaneous documents that are written in Ottoman Turkish.

Meanwhile, the Twitter account @wikileaks_turk was revealed to be tweeting from Pennsylvania, U.S., where the fugitive imam Fethullah Gülen has been residing since his departure from Turkey.

This revelation has raised questions, as Wikileaks had stated their "verified" source was an unaffiliated individual without any connections to the Gülen Movement, which is responsible for the coup attempt that transpired on July 15.