In April, we noted the use of so-called “Turkish journalist” Okay Deprem by the aggressor’s propaganda at a fake “international environmental forum” held in occupied Simferopol.
We wrote that Deprem, as a “talking head” of the Russian intelligence services, had previously “made his mark” in all sorts of propaganda opuses, from “geopolitics in the Arctic” to cucumber cultivation in occupied Melitopol.
Meanwhile, Deprem had long been firmly established in occupied Donetsk, and the occupiers claimed him as a “correspondent” for the “Evrensel” newspaper, which serves the marginal and far-left “Party of Labour” (Emeğin Partisi), previously banned by the Turkish authorities.
And then, in mid-November, the same propaganda outlet began expressing “vehement concern” over Deprem’s deportation from Minsk to Turkey, after his ten-day stay in a Belarusian detention center.
Since 2023, Deprem had appeared in Belarusian state “media,” giving interviews to local propagandists Grigory Azarenok and Ksenia Lebedeva, allegedly “receiving the third-degree Emil Chechko Prize,” and in January of this year praising the spectacle of the “presidential elections in Belarus.”
And then, allegedly, on September 8, Deprem was searched and interrogated by local security forces in Minsk, after which he allegedly spent an “unforgettable” 10 days in a detention center there and was deported to Turkey.
It’s noteworthy that, as it “suddenly emerged,” Deprem allegedly also holds Russian citizenship.
After this, the “persecution of the journalist” was reported, among others, by Russian-controlled “Gagauz media.” Now this story has been “carried to the masses” by other aggressor’s propaganda outlets.
However, by the end of October, the deported Deprem had already resurfaced with a propaganda show in occupied Melitopol, and therefore, his Moscow handlers clearly see no problem in using him.
And Deprem’s “Minsk adventures” most likely resulted from the realization by the security forces and the Lukashenko administration of the simple fact that this “Turkish talking head” has only one true master, and that Deprem’s activities in Belarus were clearly directed not only against Ukraine and Western countries.
Whether the Turkish intelligence services also realize this fact is clearly a matter of time.
