Anonymously leaked, unsubstantiated sex tapes are the attack method du jour
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A couple of weeks ago, Emin Çölaşan received a mystery package. The popular newspaper columnist and regular critic of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reported in the daily newspaper Sözcü that it contained a sex tape featuring “a person very close to somebody very important to Turkey.” Citing ethical reasons, he also claimed to have destroyed the tape.
But another mystery package arrived one week later, this time at the offices of OdaTV.com, a popular dissident website with editors newly released from prison. The tape allegedly contained a video of Mustafa Erdogan, Tayyip’s brother, socializing at a wedding of a businessman who is charged with human trafficking and child prostitution. The website never ran the video.
‘Tis the season for political sex tapes in Turkey—again.