A Turkish broadcaster is facing backlash after airing a segment that invoked an antisemitic trope to depict the Jewish founder of several major children’s YouTube channels as a threat to Turkish children.
The segment, broadcast by TVNet, opened with the line “This man, who is Jewish, is controlling the minds of Turkish children.” The report identified Melih Abuaf as a “Sephardic Jew” and said it had been revealed that he owns multiple children’s YouTube channels with millions of followers.
The broadcast was followed by a wave of posts on X, where numerous accounts repeated TVNet’s allegations about Abuaf, shared screenshots of the segment and urged users to unsubscribe from his channels.
TVNet said Abuaf’s content had been viewed billions of times and emphasized that many of his relatives still live in Israel. The segment also claimed that his father had close interactions with supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with individuals who had served in the Israeli army.
In a separate explainer during the broadcast, the channel described Sephardic Jews as a community expelled from Spain and Portugal by Catholic monarchs in the late Middle Ages who later sought refuge in Ottoman lands.
Abuaf is the founder or operator of several widely followed children’s channels, including OHA Diyorum and YapYap, as well as Çuf Çuf Çocuk Şarkıları with about 1.2 million subscribers, Karpuz Adam with roughly 931,000 subscribers, Pırtık with about 3.93 million subscribers and Afacan TV with approximately 7.8 million subscribers.
Collectively, the channels have drawn millions of subscribers and billions of views, making Abuaf one of the most prominent figures in Turkey’s children’s digital media space.
The broadcast attracted criticism from journalist Yunus Emre Erdölen, who described the targeting as antisemitic and said there was no evidence Abuaf had supported Israel’s actions. In comments cited by the Turkish Jewish publication Avlaremoz, Erdölen said identifying someone as a Sephardic Jew was not an accusation and should not be framed as one.
Avlaremoz said Abuaf had come under antisemitic attack after public attention turned to the scale of his children’s channels. The Serbestiyet outlet also described TVNet’s coverage as an antisemitic attack on a Jewish Turkish citizen who operates children’s media platforms.
Critics said the controversy was not limited to scrutiny of online influence or commercial reach, but centered on the decision to put Abuaf’s Jewish identity in the foreground while presenting his role in children’s content as inherently suspicious. They said the framing echoed a longstanding antisemitic trope portraying Jews as secretly manipulating society, media or public opinion.
Following the backlash, TVNet published a follow-up video titled “We warned parents about Melih Abuaf: We apologize!” In the follow-up, the broadcaster appeared to soften its earlier framing and shifted its focus toward Abuaf’s market influence and alleged brand placements, without repeating the emphasis on his Jewish identity.
The episode has renewed concern about antisemitic rhetoric in parts of the Turkish media and about the vulnerability of Turkey’s small Jewish community during periods of heightened regional tension. Turkey’s Jewish community, largely descended from Sephardic Jews who found refuge in the Ottoman Empire centuries ago, has periodically faced hostility during moments of political strain linked to developments involving Israel.
