A number of prominent Turkish actors who appeared in a video posted by the official accounts of the Turkish Presidency and broadcast by television channels to mark World Theatre Day told the Cumhuriyet newspaper on Thursday that they were deceived by one of their peers who said the initiative was a project for the Ministry of Culture.

The video titled “If There Is Art, There Is Love” which ended by a message of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been widely criticised on the social media and by other actors, who said Turkey’s strongman had destroyed cultural life in Turkey.

Famous Turkish actors like Suna Keskin, Haldun Dormen, Göksel Koray, and Nevra Serezli told Cumhuriyet that they had taken part in the video upon the request of another actor Nilgün Belgün and had not ween informed that the video had been produced for the Turkish presidency.

Belgün confirmed her peers’ statements and said that she had told other actors that the video had been supported by the Ministry of Culture. “Isn’t the Ministry of Culture under the Turkish Presidency,” said Belgün, noting that she had later learnt that Erdoğan’s message would be added at the end of the video,

“I can only say we became Nilgün’s victims, none of us knew that this would have a political result,” said actor Dormen, adding that he had never attended any event of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“I did not know that the video was produced for the presidency. I learned after it was broadcast,” said Keskin, another actor who took part in the video.