No, Turkish President didn't call PM Imran Pakistan's greatest enemy
Last updated on: 19 September,2019 06:43 pm
"I had a fruitful phone conversation with Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan," said Turkish President Erdogan.
TURKEY (AFP) – A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter which claim it shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is Pakistan’s greatest enemy.
The claim is false; the video shows Erdogan giving a speech at a conference in Ankara, in which he said he had a “fruitful” conversation with Khan about ongoing events in Kashmir.
The 21-second video was published in this Facebook post on August 11.
It was viewed more than 127,000 times and shared more than 6,800 times before it was removed.
It shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking from a podium flanked by Turkish national flags.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:
The Urdu language caption translates to English as: “Pakistan’s greatest enemy is Imran himself: Erdogan.”
The Urdu language subtitles translate to English as: "Kashmir has been sold out but we will not leave our Muslim brothers alone; Pakistan has tried to please Modi in cahoots with Trump; Imran Khan is the greatest enemy of Pakistan."
The video was published days after the Indian government’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status on August 5, 2019.
The state was put on a security lockdown, as described in this AFP report.
The claim is false; the video actually shows Erdogan giving a speech at a conference in Ankara, in which he said he had a “fruitful” conversation with Khan about ongoing events in Kashmir.
A Google reverse image search using keyframes obtained from the clip through video verification tool InVID found the footage in the misleading posts was taken from this tweet by the Pakistani state-run broadcaster Pakistan Television (PTV).
“We are keeping a close watch on the events unfolding in #Kashmir. I have spoken to Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI & discussed the ongoing situation with him.” - President of the Republic of Turkey, HE @RTErdogan pic.twitter.com/CUZjRqRXCQ
— PTV News (@PTVNewsOfficial) August 7, 2019The tweet’s caption states: “We are keeping a close watch on the events unfolding in #Kashmir. I have spoken to Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI & discussed the ongoing situation with him.” - President of the Republic of Turkey, HE @RTErdogan”
A journalist in AFP’s Istanbul bureau analysed the video. Erdogan’s comments in Turkish translates to English as: "We are following closely the worrying events in Kashmir. Yesterday I had a fruitful phone conversation with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan. We will also make an effort to reduce tensions by also calling the prime minister of India."