Before Türkiye election
Erdogan’s opponent accuses Russia of spreading fakes
The party leader of the Turkish CHP and presidential candidate of the National Alliance: Kemal Kilicdaroglu. photo
© Francisco Seco/AP/dpa
Is Moscow interfering in the Turkish election campaign? The Turkish presidential candidate and Erdogan challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu accuses Russia of this.
Turkish presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu has accused Russia of creating deepfake content and spreading conspiracies in Turkey’s election campaign.
“Keep your hands off Turkey,” Kilicdaroglu wrote on Twitter. What exactly he was referring to, he left open. Deepfakes are media content that has been manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques.
On Thursday, one of Erdogan’s four challengers gave up his candidacy. Muharrem Ince from the Fatherland Party spoke of “defamatory” recordings. Allegations of corruption against him had recently been raised and compromising images emerged. Whether these are authentic is completely unclear.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan showed an alleged campaign video of his challenger Kilicdaroglu during a campaign speech in Istanbul on Sunday. A member of the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK was cut into it. The video appeared as if the man was singing the CHP’s campaign song.
On May 14, people in Turkey are called upon to elect a president and a new parliament. Polls predict a close race between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu, who is running as the candidate of an alliance of six parties with different ideological leanings. Kilicdaroglu currently has a slight lead.