Pro-gov’t newspapers circulated fabricated assassination plot against President’s daughter

News circulated by pro-government newspapers Star, Akşam and Güneş that there was a plot to assassinate President Erdoğan’s daughter Sümeyye Erdoğan were fabricated, prosecutors have said, seven years after the incident.

Wednesday February 23 2022 11:51 am

Duvar English

Claims made in February 2015 and published in pro-government newspapers Star, Akşam and Güneş that there was a plot to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s daughter, Sümeyye Erdoğan, were fabricated, according to reporting by daily Sözcü.

The reports were used to launch an investigation into main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Umut Oran, journalist Emre Uslu and anonymous Twitter phenomenon Fuat Avni, who allegedly communicated about the assassination plot via Twitter DM. When it was revealed that the allegations were fake, the prosecutor’s office dropped the charges.

According to reporting by daily Sözcü, the prosecutor’s office said it could not verify the information in the newspaper reports and that the published dialogues were fake.

“It is understood that the news published with the title 'Assassination of Sümeyye Erdoğan' and the Twitter correspondence included in the news content do not reflect the truth,” the prosecutor's office said.

Oran called the incident “the biggest, most horrifying and despicable slander campaign that has ever been seen in Turkish politics” and said it would go down in Turkish history as a “great black mark.”