The second round of voting is the same as the first round. The projections of the opposition and pro-government media in Turkey differ.
Ankara - As soon as projections for the presidential election are allowed to be published, you can see how much the figures differ from each other. After 57 percent of the votes counted, CNN Türk announced that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ahead of his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu (CHP) with 54.37 percent with 45.63 percent. According to 70 percent of the votes counted in the Turkish election, the ANKA news agency, which is considered to be oppositional, sees Kilicdaroglu with 50.88 percent, just ahead of incumbent Erdogan with 50.88 percent.
And the different numbers were foreseeable. Behind the broadcaster CNN Türk is the Demirören Group, a conglomerate that also owns dozens of media outlets in Turkey. The Group's CEO is Yildirim Demirören. He is one of those businessmen who are close to Erdogan.
How media in Turkey are moving into pro-government hands
Demirören caused a stir with the purchase of the media group "Dogan Medya Grubu" in 2018, which included CNN Türk as well as the newspaper Hürriyet. The purchase was made possible by a 750 million loan from the state-owned "Ziraat Bank", said former mafia apate Sedat Peker from his exile in the United Arab Emirates at the time. According to Peker, Demirören Holding did not have to repay the loan or its interest.
The familiar faces of CNN Türk also stand out with their extreme closeness to Erdogan and his AKP government. Investigative journalist Cevheri Güven had told in one of his videos how the presenter Hande Firat (CNN Türk) had met with the then head of the press service of the Turkish secret service MIT, Nuh Yilmaz, just one day before the coup attempt.
CNN Türk's Firat hands during a live broadcast with President Erdogan on the night of the coup. © Dpa
Connections to secret service MIT became known by chance
The presenter's connections to the secret service had become known by chance. On the night of the coup, she had connected Erdogan live via her smartphone during her news broadcast and held her device up to the camera. In it, Erdogan had called on the populations to take to the streets. Firat received a call from the intelligence officer during the live broadcast, but she immediately pushed it away.
Nuh Yilmaz's name was clearly visible on the smartphone. "My video has changed the whole issue in Turkey. It was only talked about for days," Güven told our editorial team at the time. Talking about MIT's role in the attempted coup, however, crossed Erdogan's red line, the journalist tells us.
Private and at the same time pro-government media
Erdogan has similarly close ties with other corporations that also own numerous TV stations and newspapers, including Turkuvaz Medya, which includes channels such as Ahaber and ATV. The chairman of the board there is Serhat Albayrak, the brother of Erdogan's son-in-law and former finance minister Berat Albayrak. In the run-off election in Turkey, after counting more than 95 percent of the votes, both the state news agency and CNN saw Türk and ANKA Erdogan (52.18 percent/51.48 percent) ahead of Kilicdaroglu (53.43 percent/47.57 percent).
