*ANKARA – Turkey’s nationalist opposition Iyi Parti (Good Party) haslaunched a Google advertisement campaign with mischievous slogans targetingPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government ahead of June 24 polls.*——————————

The unprecedented campaign is led by party chief Meral Aksener, who splitaway from Turkey’s main nationalist group after it formed an alliance withErdogan.

Google searches of certain keywords lead internet users to humourousmessages redirecting them to the site of Iyi Parti.

A search for the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) returns a topresult which leads to the message: “Now there’s an even better one” a playon words associated with the Iyi Parti’s name.

The campaign also targets Erdogan’s hugely controversial palace in thecapital Ankara, which it describes as a “1,150 room bargain palace”.

A Google search for “empty rooms” leads internet users to Aksener’scampaign promise to open the vast palace to the public.

A search for “VPN” brings them to Iyi Parti’s website with the slogan“Don’t waste your money. For internet freedoms, wait until we come topower.”

Many Turkish internet users use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), sometimespaying for the service, to get around official blocks on certain websitesin Turkey such as Wikipedia.

Typing “dream interpretation” throws up a link which asks: “are you havingnightmares?”.

Google AdWords is Google’s advertising system in which advertisers bid oncertain keywords in order for their ads to appear in the search enginesresults.

Aksener’s election speeches are rarely broadcast on the mainstream media aswell as on the state run TRT television.

The AKP is also very active on social media, networks with critics accusingthe party of recruiting “trolls” to give Erdogan’s opponents a tough time.– AFP