Erdoğan Warns of Social Media “Psychological Operations” as Regional Conflicts Intensify

By Bosphorus News Türkiye Desk

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 26 warned of “psychological operations” carried out through social media, saying Türkiye was closely monitoring attempts to deepen divisions as conflicts intensify across the region. He delivered the remarks in Ankara during the AK Party’s Expanded Provincial Chairmen’s Meeting.

Erdoğan said Türkiye would not remain indifferent while peoples it considers friends and brothers face hardship. He also rejected any effort to reopen historical disputes or inflame old fault lines at a time of active bloodshed across the region.

“Let everyone be certain of this: we neither discriminate among our brothers and neighbors nor stand idly by while our brothers suffer. As Türkiye and the Turkish nation, we will not abandon the peoples we consider friends and brothers in good times when they face hardship,” Erdoğan said.

“I must once again emphasize that we absolutely do not consider it right to bring up debates from a thousand years ago, reopen old wounds, or pursue agendas that serve discord rather than unity, especially while bloodshed is rampant in our region,” he added.

The Turkish president then turned directly to the information space, warning that Ankara was watching online activity with particular care during the current period of regional tension.

“We are extremely vigilant against psychological operations conducted through social media platforms. We reject any actions or discussions that would deepen rifts among brotherly peoples, escalate hostility, or provide logistical support for Zionism’s ‘divide, fragment, and rule’ plans targeting our region,” Erdoğan said.

The remarks place social media and public messaging inside Türkiye’s wider regional security language at a moment when Ankara is also presenting itself as a voice against escalation and fragmentation across the Middle East. Reuters, as carried by Türkiye’s Directorate of Communications, separately reported on March 25 that Erdoğan said Türkiye was working to help establish peace in the Iran war and was weighing measures to shield the economy from the fallout.

With that, Erdoğan’s March 26 message in Ankara was not limited to a warning about online discourse. It also drew a political line against rhetoric and narratives that, in Ankara’s view, risk widening regional fractures while conflict continues to spread.