Experts slam biased Western media's post-coup reporting

After the coup attempt, the Turkish people's democratic and civil reactions were labeled "Islamist” and even “jihadist" by some Western media institutions, Burhanettin Duran, a political scientist at the Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

Duran said some Western countries called on Turkey to stick to democracy.

"Turkey doesn’t need such calls because it has democracy already. On the contrary, the FETO [terrorist] organization should be removed from Turkey," he said, referring to the followers of U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, accused of infiltrating the state and staging the coup.

He said if the coup had succeeded, the international media would have painted the story as Erdogan being “toppled as a dictator.” But since Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party did not fall, the Western media began another disinformation campaign.

Duran accused the Western media of not taking a clear stance against the coup attempt, saying that they want to limit Turkey's will as well as hinder its efforts to cleanse Turkey of the coup-plotters.

Turkey’s former European Union Minister Beril Dedeoglu also said that the Western media tried to focus attention on the Turkish government rather than the coup plotters.

She also criticized the headlines in Western media.

Dedeoglu characterized the headlines as saying, "Ok, we don’t approve of the coup, but actually we don’t approve of the things that will be done afterwards either."

Turkey's government has said the attempted coup was organized by followers of U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating Turkish state institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming a “parallel state.”

At least 240 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred during the failed putsch, and over 1,500 others were wounded as they protested it.