The former mayor of the Turkish capital city of Ankara has attracted ridicule as well as sparking a flurry of jokes for believing an ironic message on social media about the alleged discovery of jelly bean reserves in Turkey.
Former Ankara mayor Melih Gökçek, who governed the city between 1994 and 2017, when he was asked to resign by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during a TV program mentioned a tweet posted by Sözcü newspaper columnist Murat Muratoğlu.
In his tweet Muratoğlu made fun of a statement made after a Monday Cabinet meeting by Erdoğan that Turkey had discovered oil reserves in the southern province of Adana valued at some $1 billion.
Adana'da bulunan petrolden sonra,
Adıyaman'da arama çalışması yapılan iki kuyuda 6 milyar dolarlık Jelibon rezervlerine rastlandı…— Murat Muratoglu (@sozcumuratoglu) June 28, 2022
“Following the discovery of the oil reserves in Adana, jelly bean reserves, valued at $6 billion, were discovered in two wells in Adıyaman province [eastern Turkey],” Muratoğlu tweeted, voicing disbelief in the discovery of the oil reserves.
Gökçek talked about Muratoğlu’s tweet during a TV program and said he didn’t know exactly know what jelly beans were, just that they are “eaten by children,” but that he would investigate the discovery of the jelly bean reserves.
When the program’s hosts warned it could be fake news, Gökçek insisted that it was not fake but an official statement.
“They were discovered one after the other,” he said referring to the oil and the alleged jelly bean reserves.
Some Twitter users said it was unbelievable that a person like Gökçek who cannot differentiate between irony and fact governed Ankara for so many years, while other users posted videos showing them discovering packs of jelly beans in the soil.
— Oğuz Aksaç (@oguzaksac) June 29, 2022
Other Twitter users also posted tweets saying reserves of Turkish delight, marshmallows and Nutella have also been discovered across the country.