Turkish media attempts to ignore Netanyahu-Erdogan meeting

Turkey’s leading media outlets on Wednesday downplayed the historic meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York in their coverage.

The ambivalent attitude was reflected in both English-language versions of Turkey’s leading media and in the Turkish-language coverage on Wednesday morning in Turkey.

Only Anadolu Agency, a state-run news agency and one of the major media outlets in Turkey, gave the Netanyahu meeting major coverage on its home page. Other Turkish outlets appeared to either ignore the meeting, highlight other meetings Erdogan had in New York, or reference the meeting in passing.

“During the meeting, international and regional issues, political and economic relations between the two countries, as well as the latest developments regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were discussed,” the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications said on X (formerly Twitter), Anadolu reported in English.

Turkey and Israel discussed areas of possible collaboration, including “the fields of energy, technology, innovation, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, and that they should strive together for a world where peace prevails,” the report said.

The members of the Turkish delegation who were present at the meeting included Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, AK Party spokesman Omer Celik, National Intelligence Agency Director Ibrahim Kalin, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, and Akif Cagatay Kilic, the president’s chief adviser on foreign policy and security, the report said.

Different messages for different audiences

The Turkish-language report sought to highlight that the “Israel-Palestine conflict was discussed at the meeting,” and that Erdogan had “received” Netanyahu.

The language in the English report did not highlight this aspect of the meeting, which in Turkish appears to make it seem that Netanyahu went to Erdogan, rather than vice versa. The Arabic version of Anadolu did not highlight the meeting at all.

Daily Sabah, a Turkish pro-government daily newspaper, did not mention the meeting, but it did highlight US support for a “two-state solution for Palestinians [and] Israelis.”

Yeni Safak, a right-leaning populist daily, also did not mention the meeting, concentrating instead on Azerbaijan’s operations against Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Hurriyet, another Turkish daily, did not mention the Netanyahu sit-down, but it did mention Erdogan’s meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

HaberTurk, another Turkish newspaper, did mention the meeting, calling it “critical,” with the rest of the report taken from Anadolu.