This quote from the Turkish president is made up.
A Russian-language video is circulating online in which the Turkish president allegedly announces plans to create nuclear weapons. Propagandists claim that the loud statement sparked a heated discussion in the media, and all the world’s attention is now focused on Ankara and Turkey’s further actions on the political arena.
Surprisingly, despite the fact that Erdogan’s statement allegedly sparked a heated reaction in the media, we were unable to find any mention of such a statement by the Turkish president in any credible Ukrainian or Western source. In fact Erdogan spoke about nuclear weapons back in 2019, that is, more than 6 years ago. Then the Turkish president spoke in the city of Sivas to supporters of the ruling party. He expressed outrage that states that already have nuclear weapons are putting active pressure on others to prevent them from acquiring military nuclear technologies. Here is the full quote from the Turkish president: «All developed countries today have nuclear weapons. During one of my trips abroad, I was openly told about plans to increase the nuclear arsenal. “We have 7,500 nuclear warheads, while in Russia and the USA the number of warheads reaches 12,500-15,000. We are ready to bring the number of warheads to this mark,” they told me. That is what others think. And at the same time they do not forget to warn Ankara about the inadmissibility of creating nuclear weapons». Thus, even then, Erdogan did not promise to develop a nuclear arsenal in Turkey, and he certainly did not say that «if we do not have nuclear weapons, we will be wiped off the face of the earth». As a reminder, Turkey ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1979 and has had a safeguards agreement with the IAEA in force since 1981.
Recently, Erdogan has mostly spoken about nuclear weapons in the context of Israel. In June 2025, during telephone conversations with US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Pezeshkian, President Erdogan clearly stated Turkey’s position that «nuclear negotiations are the only way to resolve the conflict between Israel and Iran». He also regularly calls for international inspection of Israel’s nuclear arsenal «before it’s too late».
We recently refuted another manipulation of foreign leaders’ words in the Fake: NATO Chief Rutte «Ukraine Should Fight Until 2030».
