Erdogan on fake Kilicdaroglu campaign video: "Doesn't matter if it's doctored or not"
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated his claim on Monday that there are videos of the opposition's presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu shot with the executives of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan, İstanbul Mitingi'nde Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu'nun "Haydi" reklam filmine PKK'lı Murat Karayılan’ın videosunu montajlayıp PKK'lılar CHP'nin şarkısını söylüyorlar gibi izlettirdi. pic.twitter.com/BgJy5O1Wot
— 23 DERECE (@yirmiucderece) May 7, 2023
Erdogan had a doctored video, which he claimed was a campagaign video for Kilicdaroglu, played at his election rally on 8 May, six days ahead of the elections. Inserted images of a senior PKK official Murat Karayilan appears in the video after Kilicdaroglu, as the video creates an impression that Karayilan is singing Kilicdaroglu's campaign song and clapping hands to the beat.
Karayilan is known to be headquartered in Qandil Mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, and tries to avoid being located as he is under constant threat of Turkish airstrikes.
Erdoğan TRT Haber’de “Kılıçdaroğlu’nun Kandil’dekilerle video çekimleri var” dedi! Bunu Abdülkadir Selvi’nin “Anlamadım” diye sorması üzerine söyledi. Sessizlik üzerine, “Ama montaj, ama şu, ama bu” diye devam etti ????????♀️ @fahrettinaltun bu #dezenformasyon değil de nedir? pic.twitter.com/W4KTIRbLvE
— Banu Guven (@banuguven) May 22, 2023
In a live broacast by state TV TRT on Monday, Erdogan was asked about the video by one of the interviewers, who inquired about its source and how it may have been made.
Erdogan replied:
"Kilicdaroglu has video shootings with those in Qandil. They had these released (...) Do you understand?"
After some silence and without an audible response from the interviewer, Erdogan continued:
"It doesn't matter if it's doctored or not. They made these video shootings. The PKK leadership expressed support for them in videos."
