Inspired by the demonstrations against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a group of New York-based Turkish activists have raised enough money online to take out a full-page ad in a major newspaper in hopes that it will raise awareness about their cause.
The group of activists, which includes Murat Aktihanoglu, Oltac Unsal and Duygu Atacan, took to crowdsourcing website Indiegogo in order to raise money for the ad campaign.
The campaign mission statement reads, “We want the world to hear from Turks themselves about what’s happening in Turkey…We want the world to support us as we push for true democracy in our country.”
The group hopes to put the ad in either the New York Times or the Washington Post. A back page ad for the Post runs about $30,000. The New York Times has offered them a deal for a full-page ad for $52,000, a steep discount from their normal rates which range from $130,000 to $150,000.
Funding shouldn’t be a problem, though. The campaign reached its $53,800 goal in a little over a day. Currently, they has raised around $90,000 and has over 2,300 funders with 26 days to go.
Speaking to the Huffington Post on Tuesday, Usnal said that he originally wanted to fund the newspaper advertisement because the Turkish media was being unresponsive about the events. Now that the protests have begun to capture the attention of the international media, he hopes that the ad will help spread support for the protesters.
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