No, Turkish President Erdogan Did Not Warn US to ‘Stay Away' From Palestine

The original video dates back to July and shows Erdoğan expressing support for Palestine.

The video shows altered captions to falsely claim that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned Americans to stay away from the Israel-Palestine conflict.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A short clip of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan speaking at a podium with the Palestinian flag in the background is going viral on the internet.

What is the claim?: The video is being shared to claim that Erdoğan warned the United States to "stay away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict".

• The subtitles in the video claim that the Turkish president expressed support for "innocent Palestinian brothers" and warned America against getting involved in the conflict, as Turkey is "ready to defend Palestine at any price."

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

At the time of writing this report, the video in the X (formerly Twitter) post had nearly 1,12,000 views.

(Archives of more claims on social media can be seen here, here and here.)

Is is true?: No, Erdoğan did not issue any warning for the US as claimed.

• The video dates back to 27 July, when Erdoğan met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ankara, Turkey.

• In the video, he expressed concerns about "settler violence" and offered his condolences to Palestinians.

How did we find out?: Using Google Translate's transcription feature through its smartphone application, we obtained a rough translation of Erdoğan's statement in the viral video.

• As per the result, Erdoğan expressed concerned about "settler violence" and offered his support to Palestine and condolences to Palestinians who lost their people.

• He did not mention the USA or Americans at all.

Erdoğan spoke about "settler violence," referring to Israeli forces.

(Source: Google Translate/Screenshot)

Taking a cue from this, we used relevant keywords to look for more details about the clip.

This led us to YouTube short on Middle East Eye's channel, which was uploaded on 26 July.

The video was shot on 25 July 2023 and was uploaded a day later.

(Source: YouTube/Altered by The Quint)

• The short specified that the clip was recorded on 25 July in Turkey's Ankara, before Erdoğan held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

• The captions in this video match the translated version of the speech of the viral video.

• We came across the full text of the talk on the website of the Turkish President, as well as that of the country's Directorate of Communications website.

• Both these pages did not show any statements related to Americans on the USA, but carried Erdoğan's statement from the viral video.

The transcription shows that Erdoğan spoke about supporting the Palestinian cause.

(Source: tccb.gov.tr/Altered by The Quint)

Erdoğan's statement on the ongoing conflict: On X, Erdoğan shared a lengthy post condemning violence from and against both sides.

• "Just as we are against the oppression, cruelty, extrajudicial killings, and threats to life and property imposed on Palestinians by Israeli security forces and illegal settlers, we are also against random actions against Israeli civilians," the translated version reads.

• He asked the Israeli administration to "stop its bombardments against Palestinian lands, especially Gaza, and the Palestinians to stop their harassment of civilian settlements in Israel."

• Erdoğan added that Turkey was ready to act as a mediator, while preparing to supply "humanitarian aid materials that the people of Gaza will need."

Conclusion: An old video of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressing support for Palestine and its people while talking about "settler violence" is being shared with false claims.

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