Copyright:@ 2021 Mediterranean-Asian Investigative Journalists. Reposted at RIEAS web site (www.rieas.gr) on 26 February 2021.
In a shocking expose, Turkish sources have disclosed about creation of a propaganda team by Turkey and Pakistan through mutual collaboration.
The sources revealed that in the new paradigm, prominent Turkish state news outlets have shifted from recruiting Western journalists and to hire Pakistani and Indian Kashmiri journalists in large numbers. The source suggested that the recruitments are so rapid that around one-fourth of top and middle-range posts in TRT World have been occupied by journalists from the Indian sub-continent.
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ
Τουρκία-Πακιστάν: Μυστικός στρατός μισθοφόρων δημοσιογράφων
It was found that Turkish intelligence agency MIT was aggressively working with Pakistani agency ISI to build up a new propaganda network with TRT World and Anadolu Agency as the focal points. The work has kept intensifying with the passage of time.
We verified the facts with other sources to confirm these facts presented to us. Conclusively, after cross checking and investigating for two months, we are presenting our findings here in the report.
The Propaganda Army was Created through a Gradual Process:
Erdogan began to aspire to claim the leadership of the Muslim world in 2013-14. It was then when he instructed TUGVA to create a propaganda team to boost his image globally. Though the team was efficient in fuelling “Ottoman nationalism’ and Erdogan as its leader, it proved largely inefficient in promoting Erdogan internationally.
The new plan was to take the help from the ISPR (Inter-Service Public Relations) of Pakistan through a joint initiative. TRT world was deputed as the nodal agency to convene the top-secret programme.
When TRT World initiated a recruitment drive in Pakistan in 2015, it was quite astonishing for Pakistani citizens to see job opportunities directly coming from a media giant who earlier recruited citizens speaking English preferably in the British or the US accent.1 However, it has been recently reported by the press that Turkey is collaborating with Pakistan by hiring ISI proxies as journalists in the top two state owned media houses as it wants to emerge as the base of the ‘information warriors’ of the Caliphate.
However, it wasn’t the very first step of creating a militia of disinformation as the Western media has reported that as the initial step, Erdogan brought Turkey's electronic communications center directly under the MIT, a center which was located outside Ankara.
Sources also said that the last known visit of the Pakistani Ambassador to Ankara Syrus Sajjad Qazi to Anadolu Agency took place on 30th November 2020. A source suggested that the meeting was regarding launching a propaganda campaign to bulwark the developments taking place on constitution of the Philia Forum, intensify #BoycottFrance campaign, and to augment the ongoing campaign on Kashmir.
We found that a report of the Anadolu Agency had itself partially verified the claims. The report mentioned that Anadolu’s International News Editor Faruk Tokat and Acting Editor at English News Desk Satuk Bugra Kutlugun joined the meeting to brief the Pakistani Ambassador on developments.
