Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech in the city of Izmir last Sunday by way of a giant hologram. Erdoğan, unable to make the trip to a party meeting in the western Turkish city, recorded his message against a green screen. In Izmir, a full-body hologram of the Prime Minister roughly 10 feet tall appeared from a coil of blue light, waving to the cheering crowd.

The Turkish Prime Minister used his ethereal form to talk about upcoming municipal elections, and an ongoing corruption scandal in the country that has led to a purge of high-level officials across his government. While holograms have been used for entertainment purposes — perhaps most notably to project images of Nate Dogg and Tupac at Coachella festival in 2012 — politicians across the world have also tried to harness the technology. In 2012, Indian politician Narendra Modi broadcast 26 holograms of himself to crowds across the state of Gujarat. Modi said the use of holograms showed that India was a world leader in technology.