Translation scandal marks Trump-Erdoğan press conference

During the White House press conference of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his US counterpart President Donald Trump, Erdoğan's remarks were mistranslated. Experts claim that it was not a translation error but a deliberate attempt to satisfy the US side
Wednesday, 17 May 2017 21:40

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump held a meeting on May 16 at the White House despite differing views of the two NATO allies in foreign policy in recent times. 

Yet a striking translation scandal marked the press conference following the face-to-face talks of Erdoğan and Trump.

FALSIFIED TRANSLATION: ‘WORLD LEADER’ ERDOĞAN’S TRAGEDY

The exact translation of what Erdoğan said in his Turkish speech was, “We hope to continue the steps that would redeem the mistakes of the past in terms of the principled and determined fight against terrorist organizations”, seeming as if Erdoğan gave a message to the US and criticized the stance of the US that has been in cooperation with the Syrian Kurdish force YPG.

However, the translator erroneously interpreted Erdoğan’s remarks, “And we know that, in terms of keeping up with the principled and committed fight against the terrorist organisations all around the world, we will not repeat the mistakes of the past, and we will continue down this path together.”    

As soon as Trump heard this translation, he nodded approvingly, and his mimics showed that he was satisfied with what was said, supposing that his Turkish counterpart “admitted his mistakes”.   

SECOND SCANDAL: ‘TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS’

As the second translation error, while Erdoğan stated that “the perception of terrorist organizations YPG and PYD as a party of dialogue, whatever country is definitely not consistent with existing international agreements on this issue”, his words were translated into English, “Taking the YPG and PYD in the region, taking them into consideration in the region, it will never be accepted, and it is going to be against a global agreement that we have reached.”

Nevertheless, neither Erdoğan did say anything like “terrorist organisations” in his original remarks regarding the Kurdish YPG or PYD; nor he said “taking into consideration”, but the original form of this phrase was “as a party of dialogue”.

Many journalists and experts think that Erdoğan’s remarks were deliberately falsified during the translation in order to satisfy the US side while attempting to feed the nationalistic sentiments of President Erdoğan’s supporters in Turkey, who regard him as a “true world leader”.

Despite Erdoğan and his government (the Justice and Development Party) consider the support to the Kurdish forces in Syria as a threat to Turkey’s national interests and label those forces as terrorist organisations, the United States has been decisive in backing the Kurdish forces particularly in arms support and military training.