The “Plagues of Egypt” in Turkey: A Day of Darkness and Blood

On March 31, 2015, two exceptional events occurred to make it an unforgettable day in Turkish history: a paralyzing power failure and the murder of a state prosecutor by terrorists. Together, these events fomented an agitated discourse that dominated social networking sites in Turkey. At 10:30 a.m., almost all power stations in Turkey stopped functioning, plunging the country into darkness for nearly the entire day. The only exception was Van province, which receives its power from Iran. After tremendous efforts, power was gradually restored, but on April 14, another blackout hit the country. Although smaller than the previous one, it was enough to keep the issue on the agenda.

The widespread power outage on March 31 did not prevent Turkish Internet users from using smartphones to post and follow updates on social media. As the reports of power failures spread and the extent of the problem became apparent,[1]  various explanations for the possible causes of the mysterious darkness began to be put forward. Many users recalled the explanation provided by Minister of Energy Taner Yıldız for the widespread power outages on March 30, 2014, when local elections were being held. At the time, Yıldız claimed that the problem was caused by cats who had broken into the power stations and caused short-circuits. This explanation was greeted with widespread criticism and derision on social media, which featured a great variety of images in which felines played a prominent role.[2] Following the power outage on March 31, photoshopped images of cats alongside pictures of Yıldız again went viral, in response to the weak explanations proffered by the minister, who had difficulty identifying the source of the problem, and limited himself to vague statements about a systemic failure of the electrical grid.

Lacking a reasonable explanation for the power failures, many users floated the possibility that they were caused by a cyberattack on Turkey. Some accusing fingers were pointed at the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), a group of hackers loyal to the Assad regime, who were allegedly reacting to the hostility between Turkey and the Syrian regime. Other users chose to pin the blame on Iran, which they supposed was taking revenge on Turkey for President Erdoğan’s strident criticism of a Iran’s activity in the Middle East generally and in Yemen in particular. Nor was Israel, a country with a reputation for sophisticated cyber-warfare, absent from the list of suspects. Against this backdrop, many users chose to highlight the fact that April 14, the day of the second blackout, was also the day when Turkey began building its first nuclear reactor, in Akkuyu, Mersin province. Users identified with the opposition did not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the outages for political purposes, and used darkness as a metaphor for general attacks on the policies of the ruling AKP, claiming that it was returning Turkey to the dark times of the Middle Ages. Many users tweeted statements like “The AKP regime is the Lord of Darkness” or “It’s 2015 but this country is still dark.”[3]  The symbol of the ruling party, a glowing lightbulb, only intensified the ironic expressions used by supporters of the opposition in their criticism of AKP.

However, the most sensational tweet related to the power failure came immediately after the blackout on March 31. It came  from the Internet personality “Fuat Avni,” who is, apparently, a front for a network of activists that regularly leaks information from the innermost chambers of the Turkish government. Fuat Avni contended that the power outages were not coincidental, but rather the result of government planning. Furthermore, he claimed that – like the 2014 blackout, which many complained was used to conceal manipulations and forgeries of that day’s local elections – there would be three more comprehensive power outages in Turkey until the general elections on June 7, 2015. When this statement was published, many users cast doubt on it. Yet less than two weeks later, on April 12, there was another blackout. The fact that this blackout was smaller than the previous one did not detract from the apparent confirmation of Fuat Avni’s prediction. For his part, Avni repeated his claim that the government was using the power outages as a means for preventing a major defeat on election day.

As the tempestuous responses to the power outage on March 31 peaked, there was another event that shocked both users on social media and the traditional media as well. Terrorists from the Marxist-Leninist DHKP-C (The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front) broke into the offices of general prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz in Istanbul. Turkish social media responded in real time with many users claiming that the invasion was made possible by the blackout, although it quickly became clear that members of the DHKP-C had infiltrated the building using forged legal credentials. The terrorists barricaded themselves in Kiraz’s offices, and held him hostage with a pistol pointed at his temple.

They accused him concealing evidence and protecting the policemen responsible for the death of Berkin Elvan, a young Alevi who died in March 2014 after nine months in a coma caused when he was hit in the head with a tear gas canister during the summer 2013 protests in GeziPark.[4] Like many other radical organizations, members of DHKP-C demonstrated their understanding of how social networking sites can be used effectively. After capturing the prosecutor, they photographed him against a background of the organization’s flag and a poster reading “We demand Elvan’s murderers,” and distributed the pictures on social media in real time. These services were also the main channel used for declaring their demands to the authorities. They demanded that the policeman who killed Elvan be named, confess to the killing on live television, and be brought to trial. All attempts at negotiations between the security forces, Elvan’s father and the captors failed. Special forces broke into the prosecutor’s office and killed the terrorists, but did not manage to get Kiraz out alive. After the incident concluded, the large majority of users condemned the murder of Kiraz and claimed that the actions taken by DHKP-C did nothing to serve the case of Elvan. However, critics of the government tweeted that the official policy of protecting policeman from such accusations are to blame for the killing of Kiraz.[5]  Many users repeatedly demanded that the authorities bring Elvan’s murderers to trial and not evade the issue by pointing to the murder of Kiraz.[6]

In response to the incident, the Turkish government made two significant decisions. First was the passage of President Erdoğan’s “internal security package,” which gives unprecedented authority to police forces, including the right to search citizens’ homes without a court-issued search warrant, lengthening the detention period of suspects, and more.  This package, which is a clear retreat from accepted legal norms, set off a storm when it was proposed to the parliament last October and remained pending until the government approved it in April. Many online users objected to the new law, but the Internet protest did not spill over into the streets, nor did it lead to any changes.[7] In addition, the government blocked access to YouTube and Twitter, claiming that DHKP-C had been using them as platforms for publicity, and said that access would not be restored until the harsh pictures of Kiraz being held captive against the background of DHKP-C flag were removed. As they did when the authorities blocked these networks last year, many users offered their friends advice on how to bypass the barriers, again demonstrating that it is no longer possible to stop the flow of information, as it was in the pre-Internet era. Be that as it may, Turkey removed the blockade after Twitter blocked access to these pictures from Turkish territory. Turkish users who want to see them can still do so by using software that reroutes their IP address to one seemingly located in another country.[8] 

In conclusion, both the intensive efforts of  users during the power outage and the behavior of the DHKP-C demonstrated the advantage of social media as a source of information that can bypass governmental censorship in Turkey. Furthermore, the reverberations of the extensive blackouts and the murder of the general prosecutor again highlighted the deep divisions in Turkish society and the lack of trust that many people have in the traditional media and the government. Many Turks are inclined to understand events as a performance staged by the Turkish government so that it can run the country as it wishes. It would be hard to claim that the Turkish government is doing anything to refute this contention, especially considering the way it utilizes incidents like those described above to achieve goals that, for whatever reason, it has otherwise delayed implementing, including limitations on individual freedom.