Fahrettin Altun

Fahrettin Altun (born 1976, Stuttgart, Germany) is a Turkish politician, researcher, academic, member of the Justice and Development Party and head of media and communications in the Turkish presidency.[1]

Fahrettin Altun
Presidential spokesperson
PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan

Education and early life

Altun studied Istanbul University Department of Sociology, graduating in 1998. He then studied at Mimar Sinan University and received his PhD from Istanbul University in 2006. His doctoral thesis was titled “A Comparative Analysis of Media Theories of McLuhan and Baudrillard”. Many of his writings have been published by the Turkish government think tank, SETA.

Professional career

He was Head of the Department of Communication at Istanbul Şehir University from 2008 to 2014 and was then a faculty member at Istanbul Medeniyet University from 2015 to 2017. Altun was chief editor of the magazine Kriter, and appeared as a commentator on TRT, a state owned television channel. He has written for Sabah, Daily Sabah and Akşam, and worked as an editor for Yöneliş and Küre publishing houses.[2]

Political career

Altun has risen to prominence within the Turkish government quickly since leaving academia. According to Ahval, "Erdoğan frequently chooses Altun over his own spokesman Ibrahim Kalın to make critical statements and manage his social media output, the former academic is seen as the top man in the Presidency."[1] He is seen as being close to former Economy minister and Erdogan's son in law Berat Albayrak and his family.

Altun strongly criticised French President Emmanuel Macron over his remarks on 'separatist Islam', following terrorist attacks in France. Altun said the remarks were "yet another example of a desperate European politician vying for relevance".[3] Altun also said that European attitudes towards Muslims were reminiscent of the "demonization of the European Jewry in the 1920s."[4][5] Following a raid on the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) office in Esenyurt, he equated the HDP with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).[6]

References
  1. "The Republic of Turkey Directorate of Communications". www.iletisim.gov.tr. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  2. "EU officials hit out at Ankara after Erdoğan attacks Macron". POLITICO. 2020-10-25. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  3. admin. "The Iron Brothers Turkey and Pakistan criticize France for Emmanuel Macron's comment on "freedom of expression" | FR24 News English". Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  4. staff, T. O. I.; AFP. "Turkey says Muslims in Europe being demonized, like Jews in 1920s". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  5. "EU officials hit out at Ankara after Erdoğan attacks Macron". POLITICO. 2020-10-25. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  6. "Turkish Interior Minister shares footage from HDP building in Istanbul's Esenyurt following raid". www.duvarenglish.com. 2021-01-24. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
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