In New York, Times Square has become the scene of a propaganda war between pro-Erdoğan and Fethullah Gülen’s network, with the two sides placing giant advertisements * to call, in turn, to block the ‘other.
At the beginning of March, a “Stop Erdoğan” ad was visible on the famous Times Square in New York. It was reportedly placed by a group called “Advocates of Silenced Turkey”, which claims to “give a voice to all oppressed people in Turkey”. In addition to this announcement, this group called for an end to feminicides in Turkey.
A few days later, in response, in many Turkish cities (but also in Bosnia-Herzegovina!), “Love Erdoğan” posters flourished in the streets. Some have also appeared in Kurdish, in some towns in eastern Turkey.
In the aftermath, trucks displaying the messages “Love Erdoğan”, “Love Turkey” and “Stop Gülen” circulated in New York, as part of a campaign launched by the Turkish-American National Steering Committee (TASC ). “A radical, anti-Semitic cult leader lives in Pennsylvania,” read one of the trucks.
According to information reported on March 14 by the Anadolu agency, over the past weekend, the “Stop Gülen” ad was placed on a Times Square billboard, again by the National Steering Committee Turkish-American in the United States; It also had details related to the 2016 coup attempt.
Once a friend of President Erdoğan, Fethullah Gülen is a former imam living in Pennsylvania since 1999; he became an enemy of the power of Ankara from 2013. The Gülenist network is considered to be at the origin of the attempted coup d’état of July 15, 2016 in Turkey.
Since then, Turkey has regularly asked the United States for the extradition of Fethullah Gülen, but Washington refuses, saying Ankara does not provide enough evidence for the former imam to be handed over to Turkey.
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-And probably very expensive (an advertisement in Times Square would cost between $ 5,000 to $ 50,000 per day)
