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Critics of Erdogan become victims of smear campaigns

Al-Monitor columnist Amberin Zaman became the latest target after she was singled out by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his followers on social media.
Turkish main opposition presidential candidate Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (2nd L, back to camera) is surrounded by the media during a news conference to start his election campaign, in Istanbul, July 10, 2014. The secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) nominated Ihsanoglu, who stepped down in December as head of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as their joint candidate for the presidential race.  The first round of voting in the presidential election will

On Aug. 6, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), appeared on a mainstream TV channel for an interview. This alone is newsworthy, as it is rare to see any politician other than presidential candidate and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on mainstream TV in Turkey. One of Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse columnists, Amberin Zaman, was among the journalists interviewing Kilicdaroglu.

Kilicdaroglu, explaining how convincing the arguments of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have become, said: “The AKP voter base accepts whatever Erdogan tells them as the absolute truth.” At that point, Zaman asked, “Is it not to be expected from a Muslim majority country, where Islam puts the community, not the individual, at the center, and the education system does not encourage critical thinking?” The interview continued as Zaman and Kilicdaroglu went on to explain how propaganda is more effective on the masses when there is limited access to information and critical thinking is not supported.

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