The speech that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered yesterday at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly sparked debate in Turkey over suspicions of intentional muting of the Turkish head of state's microphone, local media reported, quoted by BTA.
Erdogan's speech, titled “Finding a solution to the Palestinian issue and implementing the two-state solution“, aimed at the situation in the Gaza Strip and Israel's policy, was automatically interrupted shortly before Erdogan finished it, as by regulation, heads of state have five minutes for their speeches at the UN General Assembly, reports the “Türkiye Today“ website.
According to media before being "silenced", Erdogan stated that "a major humanitarian catastrophe has been taking place in our region (the Middle East) for nearly two years due to the increasing attacks by the Israeli government". After his microphone was cut off, the Turkish president added: "The massacre in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 65,000 people, continues with all its cruelty. No one with even a little conscience can accept what is happening. Furthermore, one cannot remain silent in the face of such genocide".
The Turkish Presidency's Communications Directorate issued an official statement regarding the incident, stating that Erdogan's microphone was cut off after the five minutes he had for his speech expired, TRT Haber reported. "It is out of the question for our president to be prohibited from speaking or to be interrupted during his speech. As our President's speech was repeatedly interrupted by applause, it exceeded the allotted time and the microphone was automatically turned off at the end of the fifth minute due to technical reasons. Our President finished his speech shortly after that“, the statement added.
Despite the Directorate's official explanation, some Turkish media outlets are supporting the theory that what happened may have been deliberate sabotage, although no evidence has been presented to support such claims, “Türkiye Today“ also notes.