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Özgür Özel, the Group Deputy Chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP) held a press conference yesterday in the parliament and said that there was a troll army of 8 thousand people run by Süleyman Soylu, the Interior Minister of Türkiye.
Özel asserted that the troll army called "Ebabiler" was led directly by a Counsellor to the Minister, Emin Şen.
The Minister of Interior announced, while Özel's press conference was still continuing, that Emin Şen was not a Counsellor to the Minister.
Özel wrote later that the official web page of the ministry was updated during the press conference, and Şen's title, which had previously been listed as a counselor (müşavir), meaning he was a civil servant, was changed to that of an advisor (danışman).
In his press conference, Özel said, "Ebabil birds are the troll army of Süleyman Soylu. However their wages are not paid by him but the Ministry of Interior, by the Ministry of Labor previously, institutions affiliated to the ministries, and some ministries."
Süleyman Soylu was the Minister of Labor from 2015-2016 and served as the Minister of Interior since 2016.
Özel also noted that counselors to the ministers are banned from establishing and managing private companies, but that Emin Şen had a company named Native Technology and that he still was a manager of the company. Özel alleged that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of contracts were awarded to this company and other companies that Şen was a partner from the ministries that Soylu led.
Özel also replied to the Ministry of Interior during his press conference.
"The date [Emin Şen] took office is written on the page of the Ministry of Interior. Until 2020... It is still on the website. He is the Counsellor to the Minister, Özel said.
Kılıçdaroğlu tweets
Özel also claimed that it was Emin Şen who wrote the tweets by the Security General Directorate (EGM) and Gendarmerie General Command responding to the CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu criticizing the government in his statement about the drug trade.
"Emin Şen is managing the social media accounts of both the Gendarmerie General Command and the police service. We do not know how many accounts there are on the cell phone of Emin Şen, but we know that he has the authority to tweet for the Gendarmerie General Command and the Security General Directorate from the same phone."
"Eight thousand social media trolls"
Özel said 8,000 trolls are affiliated with Ebabil and that they receive special training to target opposition politicians on social media.
Özel stated that Emin Şen, who has been Soylu's social media advisor since 2016, traveled from city to city to organize a strong troll army among ruling party supporters.
Giving examples of the people against whom Ebabil has campaigned in recent years, Özel also alleged that Şen has been using the official Twitter accounts of the Security General Directorate and the Gendarmerie Command, showing printouts of tweets containing insults of CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu sent by an iPhone he claims is used by Şen.
He also told reporters that the temporary suspension of the Twitter account of CHP Istanbul Provincial Chair Canan Kaftancıoğlu in 2020 was accomplished due to the efforts of Ebabil members, who later shared messages congratulating each other.
"When Soylu tweets, it gets retweeted 3,000 times within minutes. That's thanks to Ebabil," said Özel.
Besides the Ebabil troll army, Özel named a tweeter account named "eminimsi" which he claimed was run by Emin Şen.
Özel gave details on how the troll army he is trying to reveal operated:
He said, "Let us look at the telegram channel of Ebabil. These are channels run by Eminimsi. The accounts called "Ebabil Hareketi, Derin Kuvvetler, İBB Kandil Kadrosu" are managed from this secret channel and the contents prepared here are served to 8 thousand trolls.
Gendarmerie and police responding to opposition leader
"You know the video of our president Kılıçdaroğlu together with Hacer Foggo telling that the drug lords of AKP started clashing with one another, that the streets were full of dealers and that Justice and Development Party (AKP) politics was responsible. Who should respond to this, AKP, or Soylu who is being criticized..."
"Who has responded [to this video]? The Gendarmerie General Command and the police service. The fonts used, the punctuation... It has been tweeted from the same iPhone.
Özel said that what we see was the trolls becoming institutionalized and the institutions becoming trolls. He added, "This is where Türkiye politics has arrived at." (AS/PE)
