TURKEY: Erdogan takes to campaign trail - via hologram

Record ID: 217838

  • Title: TURKEY: Erdogan takes to campaign trail - via hologram
  • Date: 18th March 2014
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JANUARY 31, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WORKING AT OFFICE
  • Embargoed: 2nd April 2014 13:00
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  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAF1G03DZWJ37A3XLNJ8RUYKLE
  • Story Text: A controversial leader who has divided opinion at home and abroad, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has been in power for 11 years. As his Justice and Development Party (AK) face hotly contested municipal elections on March 30, Erdogan has incorporated a radical new innovation into their campaign - the hologram.
    Wishing to reach a larger share of the electorate 'in the flesh', Erdogan appeared at a rally in the Aegean city of Izmir in January in the form of a 10-foot digital hologram. His image was reflected through 3D holographic beams in front of a cheering crowd of party supporters, delivering a pre-recorded speech, filmed in front of a green-box.
    Although holograms are used mostly for entertainment purposes, Turkish company Polyvision - which created Erdogan's digital image - predict that it will soon be seen in many other fields.
    According to Aret Yildiz, chairman of Polyvision's executive committee, "you can use this technology in every field, including politics. There aren't many examples of this in the world, as far as I know. Only two or three politicians have used this technique. So we have seen it's making a big impression on the world. I think this could be used in any field."
    The first politician to digitise himself was Chief minister of Indian state of Gujarat Narendra Modi who broadcasted a 26-foot hologram of himself across the state in 2012.
    Yildiz said Polyvision have received other requests from local candidates in the forthcoming elections to boost their campaigns.
    "We have been already doing business in various circles but with the Prime Minister this technology reached out to a wider group. Local elections are coming so we are receiving requests from candidates. We offer and produce projects for them," he said.
    Erdogan's campaign has been dogged by street protests. On March 12 a man in Istanbul was shot dead and a police officer in eastern Turkey suffered a fatal heart attack during Turkey's worst day of civil unrest since anti-government demonstrations last summer. The following day Erdogan told supporters at a rally that demonstrators had "burned and destroyed" AK Party offices in Istanbul.
    "These are charlatans, they have nothing to do with democracy, they do not believe in the ballot box," Erdogan said at an opening ceremony for an underground train line in the capital Ankara.
    Erdogan portrays the clashes, and a corruption scandal dogging his government, as part of an anti-government plot embracing foreign and domestic forces. He accuses Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally, of using influence in police and judiciary to engineer the graft inquiry to undermine him.
    With his work cut out to pursuade the electorate to back his cause, Erdogan might regard using a hologram of himself again as a way to win over critics who accuse him of being an old-fashioned dictator. It might also be safer.
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