Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the construction and dissemination of truth under the authoritarian rule of the President Erdogan in Turkey, where political argumentation is preconditioned to appeals to emotion and heroic reconstitution of the Turkish etatism.

Paper long abstract:

In the aftermath of the controversial "15 July coup", the Erdogan-led government marks this day as the "Day of Democracy and National Unity" whilst toughening the conditions of the state of emergency that has caused massive dismissals and imprisonments of academics, civil servants, activists, journalists and politicians. The commemoration events filled with Islamist symbols transformed into a neo-Ottomanist public show accompanied by the reciting of the Quran from the minarets of 80,000 mosques all over the country. The users of the Turkish cellphone providers heard a short message of Erdogan upon each call they made, which was the apex of these neo-Orwellian rites. Notwithstanding the evidences of corruption, massacres of civilians in the Kurdish towns, and deep-rooted relations with the allegedly perpetuator of the putsch, i.e. the Fetullah Gülen movement, President Erdogan imposes a ritualistic and transcendental "democracy and national unity" that is predicated on the ultimate submission to his authority. By controlling the mainstream media, censoring social media platforms, and banning opposition TV channels, radio stations, and newspapers, President Erdogan has become the obsolete source of truth. In this regard, this paper is an attempt to disclose the contemporary mode of veridiction, Wahrsagen, by examining the discourses and practices of the new Turkish authoritarianism, which is historically annexed to strong figures, conspiracy theories and criminalization of the opposition.