Turkey’s Presidential Communications Directorate has tripled its staff and more than doubled its spending in US dollar terms since its founding by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2018, the BirGün daily reported on Monday, citing official data released following a leadership change earlier this month.
Originally launched with a budget of TL 344 million ($72 million at the time) and 584 staff members, the directorate’s 2025 allocation has reached TL 6.15 billion ($153 million), an increase by a factor of 18 in lira terms. Staff numbers now stand at 1,561, with projected personnel expenses alone exceeding 1.06 billion lira for the year. Between January and May 2025, the directorate spent TL 2.7 billion.
The institution was founded in July 2018 by a presidential decree, with a mandate to “strengthen the Turkey brand” and streamline the state’s public messaging. But opposition lawmakers and independent journalists say it evolved into a partisan body that served the interests of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and President Erdoğan.
Critics have long described the Communications Directorate as a “propaganda presidency,” accusing it of using public funds to shape narratives, coordinate media campaigns favorable to the government and suppress dissent. The opposition has pointed to its role in managing the pro-government media, running disinformation efforts and monitoring critical journalists, especially during election campaigns.
In 2024 alone the directorate’s budget reached TL 4.1 billion. By 2025 this figure rose to TL 6.15 billion, with over a billion lira allocated to personnel expenses. The agency’s 25-story headquarters also reportedly became inadequate due to the increase in staff, prompting an additional TL 145 million in construction funding.
The Communications Directorate remains central to the government’s media architecture and is expected to continue playing a key role in shaping domestic and international narratives. Despite a change in leadership announced on Thursday, which saw Fahrettin Altun, who oversaw the directorate since its founding, succeeded by Burhanettin Bulut, a former deputy foreign minister, opposition figures say that merely replacing the director of the agency will not resolve the broader structural issues.