Foreign chefs on Turkish TV cooking shows are spies: Chief presidential adviser Yiğit Bulut

ISTANBUL

Some foreign chefs on cooking programs shown on Turkish TV are engaging in spying activities as they travel around the country, Yiğit Bulut, a chief adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has claimed. 

Speaking as a guest on pro-government broadcaster A Haber on Dec. 7, Bulut claimed foreign TV chefs were gathering intelligence as they traveled to different provinces around Turkey.

“For example, I watched a program on a news station the other day. An Englishman and an Italian were sampling the tastes of Anatolia and traveling to many provinces and villages, cooking food. Do you think they are doing that for their own benefit?” he said. 

“Have you ever seen a Turk hosting a cooking program on French TV, visiting its provinces, villages and industrial facilities?” Bulut added, urging citizens not to think that he was exaggerating or making up conspiracy theories with his claim.

The president’s chief adviser claimed that TV chefs were “taking advantage of pure-minded Anatolian people” and their hospitality, collecting information about military bases and industrial facilities under the guise of cooking shows.

"Our people are pure, they are opening their doors to friends. They tell all their secrets, they show everything: Where is the military unit, the radar, the ammunition, the weapons warehouse, how to enter and leave the village," he added.

Bulut, a former news anchor and editor-in-chief of the private broadcaster 24 TV, was appointed as then-Prime Minister Erdoğan’s chief adviser in July 2013, shortly after claiming during the Gezi protests that “international centers” were trying to kill Erdoğan via telekinesis. He also suggested that the German airline Lufthansa was behind the massive anti-government demonstrations across Turkey. 

In May 2015, Bulut declared himself “ready to die” for Erdoğan during a show on state broadcaster TRT.

“Nobody can touch the president of this country before I am killed ... I have two licensed pistols and I have collected hundreds of bullets over the years thanks to my legal rights. Before I die, until I am shot or hanged, nobody can touch the elected president of this country. There are millions of citizens like me,” he said.