海角大神

As Erdogan makes presidential bid, Turkish media airs 'Truman Show'

Erdogan is scoring lightning fast in charity soccer games, reviving fainting women, and dominating the airwaves. Is there anything Turkish prime minister and presidential front-runner Erdogan can't do?

With presidential elections looming this Sunday, Turkey's television broadcasters seem to be running their own "Truman Show" starring outgoing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Having reached his term limit, Mr. Erdogan is now seeking the presidency 鈥� currently a ceremonial position, but one he hopes to endow with a plethora of new powers. The overwhelming frontrunner has been broadcast scoring goals in an exhibition soccer match and "reviving" an unwell supporter聽with the touch of his hand during a rally in Istanbul last weekend.

The coverage has dwarfed that of his two rivals.

His critics see the blanket broadcasting as a symptom of a dangerous concentration of power in his hands, which they fear will only increase if he becomes Turkey's first directly elected president in polls on聽Aug. 10.聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 something we鈥檝e seen before, but the level it鈥檚 reached in this campaign is unprecedented and unabashed,鈥� says Cengiz Candar, writer and columnist for the daily Hurriyet newspaper. 鈥淲henever he goes anywhere, all the news channels televise it.鈥�

Unequal time

According to Turkey鈥檚 top broadcasting watchdog, the Radio and Television Supreme Council, in the opening days of campaigning between June 29 and July 10, Erdogan received 559 minutes of coverage on the main state-run news channel. His two opponents garnered only 155 minutes of airtime between them.

A recent study by The Wall Street Journal鈥檚 Turkish service discovered that public owned TRT, funded by tax payers, surpassed even the private news channels owned by Erdogan's allies in coverage of the prime minister. The journal found coverage of the prime minister to be disproportionately high.

鈥淭he media situation shows that in the 12 years he鈥檚 been in power, a growing hegemony has built up, and Erdogan is at the center of it,鈥� says Ozlem Gurses, a spokeswoman for Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the main opposition challenger for the presidency.

Memorable moments have included a televised soccer match in which the 60-year-old prime minister 鈥� who played for just 15 minutes 鈥� slotted three goals past the keeper.

Erdogan鈥檚 team wore orange jerseys 鈥� the color of his ruling Justice聽and Development Party 鈥� and the strongman premier smiled bashfully as the jubilant crowd cheered his hat trick.

The keeper, who plays in Turkey鈥檚 top league, appeared to allow two of the goals to roll past him, but the third was an artful lob by the prime minister, harking back to his days as a semi-professional soccer player.

Meanwhile, at a rally in Istanbul on Sunday, he was filmed reaching down from the stage to hold the hand of a woman who fainted and was being carried away by paramedics. After being carried to the stage, the headscarved woman reached up to clasp hands with the prime minister, before screaming praise at him. Some pro-government media reported that he "revived the fainting woman with his touch."

Lavish attention

While the media has lavished attention on Erdogan, his opponents sometimes seem to be performing in a televised version of 聽"Where's Waldo?"

When Selahattin Demirtas, candidate for the Kurdish-rooted People鈥檚 Democratic Party, complained of TRT鈥檚 bias, its chief responded with a threat. 鈥淲e will cut broadcasts if these heavy accusations continue to be expressed in live coverage,鈥� Ibrahim Sahin, the head of TRT, told reporters last week. Devlet Bahceli, head of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party, was cut off mid-speech when he complained of broadcasting bias.

Mr. Demirtas responded live on TRT itself, sarcastically praising the channel for showing him 鈥渢he聽most spectacular example of justice and kindness鈥� by allowing him to appear.

The controversy illustrates聽what Erdogan鈥檚 opponents see as his steady consolidation of control over media and state bodies. One of his former press spokesmen has been the head of the state news agency, which now reports with a nakedly pro-government spin, since 2011.

Its articles often reflect the more controversial theories emanating out of Ankara. A recent article's headline stated, 鈥淚srael is committing genocide in Gaza鈥� and another speculated that the West was backing Nigeria鈥檚 Boko Haram Islamist militant group.

In April, two British editors hired by the agency quit, complaining in an article for Vice that they had been forced to work as Erdogan鈥檚 "spin doctors."

The government also appears to have manipulated the sale of media groups to ensure they fall into pliable hands. Last year Digiturk, the country鈥檚 main private cable TV provider, was taken over by the state due to its owner鈥檚 debts.

Likely winner

Current opinion polls give Erdogan more than 50 percent of the vote, suggesting he is likely to win the contest outright on聽Aug. 10, bypassing the need for a runoff.

While he has insisted in recent days that he will not overstep the limits of the currently ceremonial office, his opponents fear he will run the country much as has in the past, with a loyal placeholder prime minister. He has also made clear that he wishes to reform the post, granting it US-style executive power.

But Ceren Kenar, a columnist for the pro-government Turkiye Daily, believes the lack of formal powers Erdogan will have as president could ultimately undermine his grip.聽Previous Turkish prime ministers Suleyman Demirel and Turgut Ozal were both weakened after making a similar transition, she notes.聽

Erdogan's efforts to empower the office through constitutional changes may be blocked by the requirement of a two-thirds vote.

Since his own party does not have the required number of deputies he would need support, most likely from the block of pro-Kurdish parliamentarians, possibly as part of a deal in an ongoing peace process to end a 30-year insurgency by the Kurdish separatist PKK. However, such a deal is far from guaranteed.

鈥淲e know Erdogan will win the presidency, but we don鈥檛 know if he will succeed in pushing through a presidential system,鈥� she told the Monitor. 鈥淭urkish politics is full of surprises.鈥�