A video clip of a speech by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spread on social media, claiming that he is talking about the possibility of annexing Aleppo, Idlib and Damascus to Turkey. The clip was accompanied by the following claim: “Erdogan: The cities we call Aleppo, Idlib, Damascus and Raqqa could become our provinces, like Gaziantep, Hatay and Urfa.”
Erdogan’s speech was translated as follows: “There are crucial developments taking place next door to Turkey. But they don’t even follow what is happening to the point that if the world collapses and World War III breaks out, believe me, the CHP administration will not care. For example, they never ask themselves this question. When the circumstances were different, when World War I redrawn the borders in our region? According to the laws, most likely the cities we call Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Damascus and Raqqa will become our province like Gaziantep, Hatay and Urfa.”
Kashif verified the statement and found it to be misleading. Erdogan did not talk about annexing Aleppo, Idlib, and Damascus to Türkiye, but rather about demarcating the borders after World War I.
The video dates back to the speech of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the 8th Regional Congress of the Justice and Development Party in Sakarya province on 13/12/2024, and was published by Erdogan’s channel on the YouTube platform “Recep Tayyip Erdoğan” with the following title: “Justice and Development Party Sakarya 8th Regular Regional Congress”, and is located specifically between 19:46 minutes and 20:45 minutes.
“I wonder what would have happened if the circumstances had been different when the borders of our region were redefined during World War I,” Erdogan said during his speech. “Perhaps cities like Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Damascus and Raqqa would have become our extensions like Gaziantep, Hatay and Urfa.”
That is, he talked about the possibility that Aleppo, Idlib and Damascus were Turkish cities after World War I and not recently annexed.
