Communication and Revolutions

In the last days of 2010 the youth of Middle East started a movement that come to be known as the Arab Spring. A series of revolutions, fuelled by discontent of the status quo in Middle East and North Africa swept the region. The leaders, most of them dictators, were taken by surprise by the strength of the movement.

Although the discontent about how their countries were run was the main reason behind most of these revolutions, they were only possible due to Social Media. Tools like Twitter and WhatsApp made it possible for people to communicate and share their views. It made possible for the people to realise that they were not alone!

The situation regarding Social Media has been complicated in Turkey especially since Erdogan come to power, some 13 years ago. For the last years, and mainly since the Arab Spring began, it's common practice for Turkey to block access to sites like Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.
The President himself swore to "wipe out" Twitter, after allegations of corruption in his inner circle.

What the Turkish government has been doing for the last decade and half regarding Social Media and the internet at large, is nothing new. The most important tool to maintain power, and to grab power is communication. A simple message can make or break a revolution, Erdogan know about this.

Since the printing press and the rise of literacy, communication has been one of the most important aspects of any political or military action. All revolutions begin with three objectives – acquisition of arms, control of strategic access points and control of communications.
When in 1918 the Bolsheviks took power from the Tsar, one of their first targets was the telegraph posts. Later, when Hitler rose to power he made it a priority to have an office dedicated to communications with Leni Riefenstahl helming the efforts. Later in the XX Century miss communication led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The point is, communications, passing your message and having the people know what you think can – and will – change the course of history.

Yesterday's events in Turkey were a surprise to the outside world, maybe not so much to the Turkish leaders. Everything is speculation at this point. What isn't speculation though, is that the coup failed. The story of the coup is one of mismanaged communication. When news of what was happening first came out, the story being told was that the army operatives had taken control of state TV and was in control of a bridge in the Bosporus, troops were marching in Ankara and president Erdogan's location was unknown. Everything was running smooth for the perpetrators until Erdogan used the tools he despised in his favor. At some point during the night, Erdogan made a Face Time call to a private TV asking for his supporters to go on to the street and show their support.

That message was the turning point during the night. Other messages were sent, mainly SMS to journalists and friends, asking the people to take on the street.

At first, the news coming out were that only a few people were supporting the president, soon the support reached critical mass, and unless the military were ready to kill their countrymen, they had lost before being able to win.

The military failed to take control of the communications, it failed to capture President Erdogan and eventually failed to do was it set out to do, a forceful regime change in Turkey.
What is about to change in Turkey is unknown, but what we can know for sure is that Erdogan, now more than ever, knows how communication and especially social media, can be a game where you win or you die...