The report claims Ukraine doesn’t allow Turkish vessels to leave the port, holding the ships and crews hostage as a “human shield” to disrupt Russia’s potential landing effort in Odesa.
This truly schizophrenic claim is already being actively rebroadcast by Russian propaganda media. There are also active attempts underway to push the report into the Western information space, with the main narrative being that Ukraine is a terrorist nation holding Turkish ships and their crews hostage!
Of course, this is an absolute lie, which is part of yet another psyop run by Russian intelligence, implemented through their puppet, pro-Russian platform – Aydinlik.
So let’s dissect the spin.
First of all, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this piece by Aydinlik came out at a time when scenarios for unblocking civilian navigation in the Black Sea are being actively discussed. And these scenarios vary greatly – from supplying Ukraine with long-range anti-ship weapons to deploying convoys involving NATO warships.
Moreover, Ridvan Turan, a member of the Grand National Assembly with the Democratic People’s Party, said that not only the blockade of Ukrainian ports that was unacceptable, but also Russia’s very attack on Ukraine in general.
It would seem obvious to the whole world, who is blocking Ukrainian ports and why dozens of foreign merchant vessels can’t leave Ukraine. But the Aydinlik editorial office for some reason fails to report the facts, instead writing nonsense about “human shields”! Although, the reason for such behavior is right there on the surface.
The thing is that Aydinlik is run by the Vatan (“Motherland”) party, which is openly pro-Russian. Moreover, it could be referred to as the Kremlin’s mouthpiece in Turkey.
For example, the Vatan party strongly opposes Turkey’s military operations in northern Syria and calls on Ankara to go for rapprochement with Bashar al-Assad. Vatan supports Turkey’s withdrawal from NATO and the pullout of U.S. troops from their bases across the country. Vatan also calls for recognizing the occupied Crimea as Russian territory. And most importantly, Vatan supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while Aydinlik regularly posts reports from the front line, shot by Russian “journalists” and the Russian defense ministry – all of which are part of Russian psyops.
For example, remember the story about a Frenchman who claimed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had been committing war crimes against Russian POWs in Kyiv region? Later it turned out that this “witness” wasn’t even in Kyiv region so he couldn’t have seen any of what’s been happening there. But, it was way before his lies were exposed that his interview had been shared multiple times.
Incidentally, Aydinlik was one of the first outlets to pick the interview up!
On May 9, they came out with an article on the events of May 2 in Odesa, which the publication called “the massacre by neo-Nazis.” Any familiar patterns?
To sum up, it is obvious that in Turkey, as in many other countries, a network of pro-Russian political forces and media has been operating extensively. Russian special services have been working hard for decades to set up this network around the world. But it is also obvious that we are now living in a time when there should be no concessions or half-measures as there’s no place for hushing issues down or turning a blind eye to them. And it is clear that the Vatan party, which is part of the Kremlin’s hybrid influence force in Turkey, is spreading extremely dangerous fake stories through Aydinlik, in fact undermining regional stability and security.
So what about conclusions?
I hope Ankara will make them as soon as possible…