Istanbul, opposition rally ahead of the general elections scheduled for May 14. Image by Arzu Geybullayeva. Used with permission. In Turkey, ahead of the country’s most important election in recent memory, scheduled for May 14, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) seems to be resorting to foul play and tricks to steer the votes in their favor. There are fake stickers, physical violence, dark web rumors, manipulated videos, accusations, misinformation, anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments, and media oppression, to name a few. If this was a circus show, the magician on stage could certainly pull out a few surprises to keep its spectators entertained, but on Turkey’s political stage, incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdoğon and the AKP are running out of tricks. On May 7, as Erdoğan stood on stage at a pre-election rally in Istanbul, a video played on a large screen beside him linking his main rival in this election, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, to the Kurdish nationalist Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), a designated terrorist group. As the video started playing, Erdoğan addressed the crowd of supporters who gathered at the former international passenger Ataturk Airport, “[they] are walking shoulder [to] shoulder with the PKK. You, my national and local citizen, will you vote for them?” But the video was fake. Fact-checkers debunked the video and proved its content had been manipulated. The video combines the official campaign video released by the opposition alliance showing Kılıçdaroğlu calling on Turks, “come on, lets go to the ballot box together,” standing next to Kılıçdaroğlu in the video is the current mayor of Ankara and Istanbul. Behind the three men are a group of people. The manipulated video shows a close-up of Kılıçdaroğlu from the same video; only the original video ends with the call, while the edited version on screen, continues to show another man on screen, Murat Karayilan, the founder of the PKK. Last week, Kılıçdaroğlu warned the country’s voters of possible manipulations similar to Cambridge Analytica interference — where a political consulting company used illegally obtained Facebook data to launch smear campaigns on opposition politicians and sway election results in the US. Son 10 güne 2 gün kaldı. Ben son uyarımı yapayım. Fahrettin Altun, Serhat ve ekip arkadaşları Çağatay ile Evren; anlaşmaya çalıştığınız dark web dünyası, sizi yabancı istihbaratın eline düşürür. Cambridge Analytica'cılık oynamak sizin kapasitenizi aşar çocuklar. SON UYARIMDIR! — Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (@kilicdarogluk) May 1, 2023 There are two days left until the final ten days [before the election]. Let me give my final warning. Fahrettin Altun, Serhat and their teammates Çağatay and Evren; The dark web world you are trying to deal with will lead you into the hands of foreign intelligence. Playing Cambridge Analytica is beyond your capacity, boys. THIS IS MY FINAL WARNING! Kılıçdaroğlu’s warning was based on intelligence received by his Republican People’s (CH) party, reported online media platform Medyascope. According to the intelligence, the ruling party planned “to use ‘deep fake’ style videos and sound recordings, as well as Cambridge Analytica-style techniques in the last 10 days leading up to the election, with the goal of tanking Kılıçdaroğlu’s campaign just before voters go to the polls,” reported Medyascope. According to the same intelligence, the Directorate of Communications and its head, Fahrettin Altun, were the masterminds of the campaign. In response to the accusations, Altun tweeted, “We trust our leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. We are working for the ideal of the Turkish Century. We fight against disinformation, which we see as one of the biggest enemies of democracy, and inform the national and international public in an accurate, fast, and transparent manner.” But Kılıçdaroğlu also hinted that the Directorate of Communications had hired an international team, paid in bitcoin, and ordered his team to produce a series of deep fakes of the opposition presidential candidate days ahead of the election. Speaking to the host of a show on Fox Haber channel, the main opposition (CHP) Izmir deputy Tuncay Özkan elaborated further on the party head’s suspicions. “There are names, it’s all rather clear. [We know] who is doing it and what they plan to do. [We know the plan is] to manipulate visuals and audio of our esteemed leader,” explained Özkan. Earlier, CHP was branded a PKK supporter through a sticker campaign that was orchestrated by the ruling party youth branch, according to internal party investigations. The stickers with the CHP logo read, “When we come to power, we are going to release Apo,” referring to Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the PKK.