Chest-thumping pundits relish 'messing with Putin'
Jubilant reactions by pro-AKP pundits to Turkey downing a Russian jet were tempered by those of concerned AKP elites and a worried and satirical public.
On Nov. 24, Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet. Across Turkey, the instantaneous reactions on social media included the exuberant, the sober yet accusatory and the satirical.
Perhaps the most surprising were pro-AKP pundits' joyful and gloating responses. They appeared reckless and gleeful in the face of a crisis situation. Some of their social media posts were carried by the mainstream print press.
Ceren Kenar, a columnist for the daily Turkiye, tweeted a photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a pilot’s jacket at a testing of the Turkish-made Hurkus jet in June 2012. The heading, in English, read, “With Love from Turkey,” and a caption at the bottom, read, “Yes you can Obama,” an obvious reference to US President Barack Obama’s campaign slogan “Yes we can.” A commenter on Eksisozluk, a collaborative online website, reacted to Kenar’s tweet with the entry, “Those who make money with their ignorance.”
The photo in Kenar’s tweet was also used in a video mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin. The video had thousands of hits within the first few hours of being posted. It also contains footage from the recent G-20 meeting in Antalya, where Putin and Erdogan met briefly, and in one part one can hear Erdogan in the background saying to Putin, “See you.”
