Turkey's Communications Directorate has dismissed a recent Reuters report allegedly revealing bribery talks between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son and a subsidiary of an American company based in Sweden.
According to the report released yesterday, the company named Dignitia aimed to influence the government to implement regulations requiring the use of alcohol breathalyzer devices. Their goal was to establish a monopoly in the country.
As part of a ten-year exclusivity agreement, Dignita agreed to pay substantial lobbying fees totaling millions of dollars to two entities where Bilal Erdoğan held positions on the board of directors, the report alleged. However, no actual bribery payments were made, and Dignita abruptly abandoned the project in late last year.
In response to a complaint received in April, the US Department of Justice and Swedish prosecutors have initiated preliminary investigations to ascertain whether any violations of anti-bribery laws occurred, according to the report. In both countries, the commission of a crime can be established even without the actual exchange of bribes.
"Futile efforts"
In response to the report, Fahrettin Altun, Turkey's communications director, labeled the article as "disinformation" and "perception operation."
Altun questioned the motives of the article "aimed at the president's family," pointing out that it was published shortly before the NATO leaders' summit.
"While such attacks on our President, which have been on the rise since the presidential runoff on May 28, are disrespectful to the will of the Turkish nation, they are also futile efforts that will not deter us from our path.
"We condemn Reuters for serving this false news story, as they have once again demonstrated to the entire world just how crucial our struggle against disinformation is."
Today, the Reuters news agency provided its subscribers with the title of a special file aimed at Bilal Erdoğan, the son of our President, containing baseless claims and so-called news consisting of a script; from the perspective of the history of journalism, it is both a black… pic.twitter.com/06MXhHDyfe
— Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) June 26, 2023
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