Turkish President expresses wish to meet Imran Khan during recent visit to Pakistan

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team reviewed this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team conducted a reverse image search to find President Erdogan’s speech during his visit to Pakistan.

Since February 17, several users on X shared a video of Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which he can be heard mentioning Imran Khan and how he wishes to meet him during his visit to Pakistan. However, the video is dubbed over and is old, from 2020.

President Erdogan came to Pakistan on a two-day visit on February 12, 2025, where he was welcomed with a guard of honour at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad to meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

HOW IT STARTED

On February 14, 2025, a user on X, who appears to be a PTI supporter based on his bio and past posts, shared a video of President Erdogan in which he and a translator can be heard saying, “Hello to all my Pakistani brothers and sisters. Pakistan is a very close country to Turkiye, and I have good memories associated with this place. When I visited Pakistan last time, former Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed me. Today, PM Shehbaz is leading the nation. I wish that Imran Khan could join us today and I could shake his hand. I hope to meet him again in the future.”

The caption of the post said, “Turkish President Erdogan’s mention of Imran Khan as prime minister, his complaint about his absence from the assembly today, and his desire to shake hands with Imran Khan have sent a wave of lightning bolts down on the government.”

The post gained 19,700 views and was reshared 244 times.

The video was shared widely on X by other PTI supporters as well. The video can be seen here, here, here and here.

The same video clip was shared on YouTube as well.

The video garnered 109K views.

METHODOLOGY

A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality, and the odd nature of the statement being attributed to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan showing a preference for a political figure.

The team critically analysed the video to look for visual discrepancies and observed that the Turkish dialogue in the background does not align with President Erdogan’s lip movements, indicating a lack of synchronisation and suggesting possible audio manipulation.

Additionally, a Google reverse image search was conducted that yielded an article by a Turkish news outlet Yeni Asr, published on February 14, 2020, covering President Erdogan’s visit to Pakistan when Imran Khan was prime minister.

Turkish President Erdogan’s full speech from the time does not show him making any such statements. Also, Imran Khan, who is mentioned as absent in the video, can be seen sitting across Erdogan in the parliament.

Furthermore, the Turkish president did not address the Pakistani parliament during his recent visit from February 12-13 2025.

He spoke twice during his trip, first at a joint press conference with PM Shehbaz and later, the Pak-Turkiye Business Forum. He wasn’t heard making any such remarks about Imran Khan during both times.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The video of the Turkiye President saying he wishes Imran Khan was present during his visit to Pakistan is false.

The video is dubbed over and is old, from 2020.

Evidence and References

February 14, 2020, Yeni Asr news article:

https://www.yeniasir.com.tr/gundem/2020/02/14/baskan-recep-tayyip-erdogandan-pakistan-parlamentosunda-flas-mesajlar

February 14, 2020, Capital TV YouTube video, President Erdogan’s Full Parliament Speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=einlSItuViE

February 13, 2025, SAMAA TV YouTube video, President Erdogan press conference:

https://youtu.be/zhbAiNDN7hs?si=LIJf08TY-SBao769

February 13, 2025, Dunya News YouTube video, President Erdogan at Pak-Turkiye Business Forum:

https://youtu.be/U4gHn6AdK9U?si=vL9r1EOyfioAN-qg