- summary
- Prime Minister Erdoğan delivered a series of speeches between June 1–15, 2013 publicly labeling Gezi protesters as terrorists, looters, and agents of foreign powers seeking to destabilize Turkey. He accused unnamed international financial interests of orchestrating the unrest and singled out Twitter and social media as tools of foreign manipulation, stating 'there is now a menace which is called Twitter.' State broadcaster TRT initially ignored the protests for days while CNN Türk broadcast a documentary about penguins. Erdoğan's delegitimization framing was systematically amplified by pro-government media, establishing the foreign conspiracy narrative that would be applied to all subsequent civic space actors.
- country
- Turkey
- date text
- 2013-06-01
- entities
- Prime Minister Erdoğan, AKP Government, Pro-government media ecosystem
- entity type
- Senior Official / State Media
- id
- 1067
- name
- Prime Minister Erdoğan, AKP Government, Pro-government media ecosystem
- role
- actor
- Gezi Park protest movement, national media
- entity type
- Protest Movement
- id
- 1068
- name
- Gezi Park protest movement, national media
- role
- target
- Prime Minister Erdoğan, AKP Government, Pro-government media ecosystem
- sources
- citation
- Reuters, 'Erdogan says social media is the menace,' June 2013; BBC News coverage June 2013; Freedom House Freedom of the Press 2014 Turkey chapter
- tactics
- Political Authorization by State Actors
- label
- Political Authorization by State Actors
- code
- TC-02
- needs review
- false
- role
- primary
- Academic / Foreign Authority Legitimization
- label
- Academic / Foreign Authority Legitimization
- code
- TC-29
- needs review
- false
- role
- secondary
- Political Authorization by State Actors
- narratives
- Foreign-Backed Agitator / Terrorist
- label
- Foreign-Backed Agitator / Terrorist
- code
- LEGACY-N-aa885b0c1e87
- needs review
- true
- role
- primary
- Foreign Conspiracy Framing
- label
- Foreign Conspiracy Framing
- code
- LEGACY-N-334bbe7e9608
- needs review
- true
- role
- secondary
- Foreign-Backed Agitator / Terrorist
- campaign ids
- campaign phase
- Narrative Seeding
- channels
- Ministerial Speeches, State Media, Pro-Government Newspapers
- civic response
- Civil society issued public statements rejecting terrorist framing; independent journalists documented protests via social media; bar associations condemned criminalization of protest
- consequence category
- Delegitimization / Media Blackout
- created at
- 2026-09-24T17:50:55.358311+00:00
- date precision
- day
- escalation
- 0
- harm track
- Track 2
- id
- TUR-002
- institutional consequence
- Systematic media blackout of protests; normalization of terrorist labeling for civic actors; social media restrictions attempted
- notes
- The foreign conspiracy frame deployed at Gezi became the master narrative for all subsequent tracks. The media blackout by mainstream outlets — including CNN Türk — demonstrated the already-advanced state of media capture and the consequent dependence of civil society on social media channels. | Additional tactic: TC-06
- occurred on
- 2013-06-01
- trigger type
- Mass protest threatening AKP political legitimacy
- updated at
- 2026-09-24T17:50:55.358311+00:00
- version
- 1
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