Turkish state broadcaster TRT made false statements in FARA disclosure filing

Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm

In its obligatory declarations filed under a US disclosure law, Turkey’s public broadcaster, the main propaganda tool of the Islamist ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), made a number of false statements.

In disclosures filed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), Turkey’s public broadcaster’s Washington office, operating under the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, mischaracterized its ties to the AKP and the office of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, claiming that it acts independently of the Turkish government.

The Ankara-based Turkish Radio and Television (Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu, TRT), the parent of the US corporation of a similar name, is under the direct control of the Erdoğan government and steered by the president’s Communications Office according to a presidential decree published in Turkey’s Official Gazette on July 24, 2018.

TRT owns and operates 14 channels including the English-language TRT World. It has offices abroad including in Washington, D.C. All of them are fully funded by the Turkish government, and the TRT management is appointed by the government. In fact the current bureau chief in Washington, Tuncay Yürekli, served as deputy director of TRT in Ankara before his appointment to the US.

TRT claimed in its FARA filing that it is not controlled by the Turkish government:  

In the FARA filing made by Yürekli on March 12, 2020, TRT Washington’s corporation claimed it was neither directed nor controlled by a foreign government or political party even though it acknowledged that it was entirely financed from Turkey and supervised by the Erdoğan government.

Yürekli also tried to distance TRT from direct government funding, saying the funds that come from Turkey are collected from taxpayers through various schemes and claimed “TRT does not receive any funds from a foreign government or a foreign political party.”

The declaration ignored the fact that taxes levied on Turkish consumers to support and fund TRT operations are decided by the Turkish government and that taxpayers have no choice but to pay those fees. For example, one of the sources of revenue for TRT comes from a portion of fees imposed on consumers’ utility bills. The rate was decided by the government.

In fact, to alleviate the burden of soaring energy prices on Turkish consumers, President Erdoğan personally announced on November 9, 2021 after a cabinet meeting that the government would remove the TRT fee from electricity bills starting in 2022.

The government had been collecting 2 percent of the remittance in consumer electricity bills as a contribution to the TRT budget, eventually amounting to 2.36 percent of the total bill with the inclusion of value added tax factored into the bill. In 2020 TRT received 1.2 billion Turkish lira from this scheme, an increase of 2,048 percent from a decade ago.

In its FARA filing, TRT falsely claimed that it operates impartially, while opposition parties in Turkey say the network is a mouthpiece of the Erdoğan government and provides little to no coverage of criticism of the government. The airtime assigned to cover events and speeches involving opposition political parties is minuscule compared to airtime generally allocated to the ruling AKP and President Erdoğan.

The composition of the TRT board of directors tells a different tale than the one offered by the network’s Washington bureau to FARA officials. It is neither an impartial board nor a body independent of the government. In July 2021 President Erdoğan appointed Hilal Kaplan, one of the chief propagandists of the regime, as a member of the TRT board. According to a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette, Erdoğan selected Ahmet Albayrak, an advisor to his communications office, as chairman of the board and Mehmet Zahid Sobacı, the presidency’s deputy director of communications, as TRT general manager.

TRT FARA filing in March 2020:

Other newly appointed members have similar profiles, and all were handpicked to operate according to the Erdoğan government’s policies. Oğuz Göksu, a staff member in the Presidential Communications Directorate; the directorate’s Media Relations Coordinator Mücahid Eker; Associate Professor Veysel Kurt, a researcher at the intelligence-linked think tank the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA); the pro-government English-language newspaper Daily Sabah’s Editorial Coordinator Meryem İlayda Atlas; and Labor and Social Security Minister Vedat Bilgin’s son Oğuzhan Bilgin were named as new members as well.

Among all the new members of the TRT board, Kaplan stands out as the most notorious figure for running a vicious propaganda campaign on behalf of President Erdoğan. She and her husband lead a troll group called the Pelikan Group, which is known for orchestrating slander and defamation campaigns against government critics and opponents. The Pelikan Group, which is also connected to Turkish intelligence agency MIT, helped Erdoğan oust then-prime minister and current leader of the opposition Gelecek (Future) Party Ahmet Davutoğlu, forcing him to resign in May 2016 with a list of unattributed files they published in April 2016.

Turkish presidential decree confirming the TRT is subordinate to the president’s communications office: 

Kaplan was publicly shamed by then-US President Donald Trump, who asked, “Are you sure you’re a reporter?” when Kaplan stepped up to ask a question that mirrored Erdoğan’s talking points at a press conference at the White House during the president’s trip to Washington in November 2019.  “You don’t work for Turkey, with that question?” Trump added.

The FARA filings reveal how much money was transferred from TRT to its Washington office as well. Between March 2018 and December 2019, Turkey sent $2.7 million to Washington to cover TRT expenses there. The bureau paid out $884,000 to freelancers to produce content.

The radical shift in the editorial policy of TRT by turning into a mouthpiece of the Erdoğan regime as well as TRT’s operations abroad under the trademark of TRT World to promote political Islamist ideology and project Erdoğan’s caliph-like image to Muslim communities around the world including in the US prompted the US government to revaluate TRT’s position in the US.

FARA filing shows how much money Turkey transferred to the US to fund TRT operations in Washington: 

On April 19, 2018 the FARA unit sent a letter to TRT demanding that it register as a foreign agent and requesting additional information for a further assessment. At the outset TRT’s Washington office resisted registering itself as a foreign agent, claiming that it is an independent entity. On October 29, 2018 TRT’s lawyer informed the FARA Unit that the network did not intend to register pursuant to FARA.

On August 1, 2019 the US Department of Justice (DOJ) National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section ordered TRT to register under FARA, rejecting TRT’s objections. DOJ officials concluded that the TRT Washington office is acting on behalf of both the TRT network in Ankara  and the Turkish government. It engages in political activities and works as a publicity agent and information service employee, according to the DOJ, which required the bureau to register under US law. They also made it clear that TRT is controlled by the government of Turkey.

FARA letter to TRT, ordering the registration of TRT as a foreign agent: 

On April 19, 2018 the FARA unit sent a letter to TRT demanding that it register as a foreign agent and requesting additional information for a further assessment. At the outset TRT’s Washington office resisted registering itself as a foreign agent, claiming that it is an independent entity. On October 29, 2018 TRT’s lawyer informed the FARA Unit that the network did not intend to register pursuant to FARA.

On August 1, 2019 the US Department of Justice (DOJ) National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section ordered TRT to register under FARA, rejecting TRT’s objections. DOJ officials concluded that the TRT Washington office is acting on behalf of both the TRT network in Ankara  and the Turkish government. It engages in political activities and works as a publicity agent and information service employee, according to the DOJ, which required the bureau to register under US law. They also made it clear that TRT is controlled by the government of Turkey.

TRT’s FARA disclosure in March 2021: