However, this is not where it ends. Considering how lively and fertile the Turkish media is, the government cannot jail or fire every critical journalist. There are at least two other methods utilized by the government to maintain control. One is to tarnish the reputation of experienced, honest and successful journalists. You can see this clearly on Twitter. Spam wars are so intense that Twitter's CEO had to make an official statement on July 29 that the organization is not cooperating with the Turkish government . Once a bigwig pro-government pundit fingers a colleague, hundreds of tweets pour in from several accounts to join the witch hunt. On social media, it could only take a couple of days and a few sentences hitting the nerve center of Erdogan’s inner circle to erase years of hard work and a good reputation of a Turkish pundit. Yes, it is that easy to assign the victims a list of labels ranging from “spy” to “traitor,” “incompetent” to “infidel.”

Contributors to Al-Monitor's Turkey Pulse are well versed in the challenges the Turkish press faces. Yavuz Baydar explained how the other financial interests of media bosses are tangled up with basic press freedoms to control the news reporting in Turkey. Baydar recently lost his ombudsman position as a punishment for speaking up. Hence, there are several methods available for the Turkish authorities, from incarceration and censorship to threats of firing, in their creation of a government-friendly media structure.

There is no evidence that Temelkuran has ever expressed such sentiments, nor have any generals made Turkish news recently. Intriguingly, there is a new “passionate” trend along Sharif’s line, in Turkish social and print media, surrounding Erdogan's cult of personality. This trend is just another method for silencing freedom of expression. Though the systematic public declaration of love might seem innocent and natural to the unsuspecting eye, when it is rewarded through cronyism, and when those who fail to profess sufficient “love” are continuously singled out, it becomes a form of repression. To explain this trend, here are a few poignant examples.

A columnist from Yeni Safak, Abdurrahim Boynukalin, tweeted, “Ece Temelkuran would not have said 'no,' either,” implying that there are Turkish women who would even accept polygamy with a general if it means AKP government will be toppled. Temelkuran is a vocal Turkish woman columnist who has been known to challenge AKP policies.

On July 25, Egyptian columnist Ghada Sharif penned a rather passionate column in support of Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi , the deputy prime minister of Egypt. Her column drew a heated response in social and print media from Turkey’s pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) pundits, who expressed awe of Sharif for “seeking to be Gen. Sisi’s fourth wife or concubine.”

One July 24, Asli Aydintasbas, an experienced Milliyet journalist, had to confront her colleague, a pro-AKP journalist, on live TV for belittling her. She stood her ground and explained that there is a trend of “caricaturization of women journalists in Turkey,” as they are systematically targeted in the mainstream Turkish media. This deliberate campaign of “discrediting and sidelining” from mainstream media applies to any journalist who fails to follow the party line.

The second part of the witchhunt is distributing these media jobs to AKP cronies. But how do you find the staff qualified to replace these experienced journalists? Here we go back to Sharif’s passionate loyalty. Not a day passes in Turkish social media that a new “feno” is not born. "Feno" is short for "phenomenon," used here for an attractive social-media character who is otherwise unknown and manages to become extremely popular in a short time.

These “fenos" are sometimes also called tiki, Turkish for dumb-witted or bimbo. Their credentials are ambiguous at best and most of them are novice journalists. Their strength comes from their dedication, loyalty and following the party line diligently. They are frequently unqualified but willing soldiers in the media wars of the AKP. Many of them are women. When these women enter the workforce, their careers are almost all charted for them. For example, you may turn on a Turkish TV channel and see a political-discussion program. The hosts are usually a young lady who is appealing to the eye and an older gentleman. While the gentleman asks the “intelligent” questions, the pretty lady mostly struggles to read the note cards provided to her and prefers to keep a smile frozen on her face. It is always lovely to see pretty women smile, but rather difficult to comprehend the unwavering smile or giggle while talking about casualties of the Syrian civil war.

The punchline is that experienced journalists suffocate under AKP pressure as happy-go-lucky unconditional-love-providing “fenos” enter the market of punditry. With their entry it becomes almost impossible for intelligent, experienced journalists to survive. These new faces lacking the adequate education, training and competence achieve positions others would have to work up to over a decade in the media and bureaucracy to obtain. It is mind-boggling that a few hundred tweets about how much you love Erdogan, and that Erdogan never lies, that whoever dares to speak against him must be a spy and other such baffling statements could land you a cushy job in Turkey. Soon, you might even have your own TV show or a column. If you are lucky like Yigit Bulut, the father of the notorious “telekinesis” thesis, you may even join the ranks of Erdogan’s senior advisers. If you tweet and network to the approval of Erdogan, a parliament seat is not out of reach. Or maybe you prefer an AKP leadership position, where you will have even further “freedom” to love and declare Erdogan the "perpetual leader of Turkey for eternity,” as AKP Deputy Chairman Suleyman Soylu has done.

So far, no pro-AKP women have yearned publicly to be Erdogan’s second wife, most likely because they are aware of Emine Erdogan’s rigid stance against polygamy despite its wide acceptance in Islam. But this should not mean a lack of love for the prime minister. Indeed, on July 31, Erdogan said, “Everyone is not obliged to love me.” However, when it pays big to profess your love and dedication for the leader, why risk your personal financial security by being critical?

Pinar Tremblay is a doctoral candidate in political science at University of California, Los Angeles, and an adjunct faculty member at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She has previously been published in the Hurriyet Daily News and Today's Zaman. On Twitter: @pinartremblay