Did Turkey’s President Say “We Are In A War Against Bitcoin”? An Investigation
21 Settembre 2021 - 3:22AM
NEWSBTC
Is President Erdogan so out of touch with what’s happening around
him that he declared war against Bitcoin? Or is this a case of
“lost in translation” and quotes out of context? An article titled
“We are in a war against bitcoin,” says Turkey’s president” has
been making the rounds over at Bitcoin-Twitter, receiving both
mockery and rightful criticism. However, we noticed a crucial
detail: the article doesn’t contain a direct quote from Erdogan.
That’s suspect. Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade
Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course Armed with an iron will and
Google Translate, NewsBTC explored the issue and came to unexpected
conclusions. Let’s fall into the rabbit hole. “When President
Erdogan fired the central bank president in March, sending the
Turkish lira plummeting against the dollar, Google searches for the
term “bitcoin” soared across the country.” The tighter politicians
squeeze, the faster #Bitcoin succeeds.https://t.co/F9wmVfl06C —
Robert Breedlove (@Breedlove22) September 20, 2021 Is It War
Against Bitcoin Or War Against Cryptocurrencies? The original
article cited a mainstream and generally trusted source, an article
in Turkish at Bloomberght titled “Erdogan: We have a separate war
against cryptocurrencies.” Reportedly, the president held a Youth
Meeting Program, so his audience for this was students from all
over the country. They were discussing the Digital Turkish Lira,
the country’s proposed CBDC, and one of the participants asked
about their current views on cryptocurrencies: “Erdoğan said that
they do not have a problem of opening up to crypto money, on the
contrary, they have a separate war and struggle against them.
Erdogan said, “We will not give them such a premium, nor will we.
Because we will continue on our way with our money, which is our
fundamental identity in this matter.” He never even mentions a war
against Bitcoin. Remember, this is a Google translation and some
info might’ve been lost. However, the discrepancies are there. The
President says they “do not have a problem” with crypto, but that
“on the contrary, they have a separate war and struggle against
them.” On the contrary to what? And do notice, it’s not a direct
quote either. In the actual Erdogan quote, he says nothing about a
war against Bitcoin. We need more data. Let’s consult other
sources. Remember, "We, the people", does not mean "We – the
state". Trying to fight a technology that empowers people is a sure
way to be on the losing side of history. — Jeff Booth (@JeffBooth)
September 20, 2021 What Did President Erdogan Say Exactly? A quick
search leads us to The New Arab. They don’t quote the President
directly, but their translation makes much clearer the intent of
what he said: “Erdogan claimed that the country “definitely”
doesn’t have a problem with the spread of digital
assets. However, that Turkey would
carry on with its own money, which he believes is part of the
national identity.” They don’t have a problem with the spread of
digital assets because they’re preparing their CBDC, and their way
to sell it is that money is “part of the national identity.” Got
it. But, what about this war against Bitcoin thing? A second search
leads us to Newsbit, who seemingly quote a much more clear-headed
President Erdogan directly: “We have absolutely no intention of
embracing cryptocurrencies,” the president replied, adding: “On the
contrary, we have a war against them. We would never support
cryptocurrencies. Because we continue with our own currency that
has its own identity.” Ok, now we know that Erdogan never said
anything about a war against Bitcoin and always referred to
cryptocurrencies. And that, in code, he was always talking about
the Digital Turkish Lira. However, did he really say all that? That
quote seems suspiciously close to the original Bloomberg quote, and
that one wasn’t literal. If the President said everything that
clearly, why wouldn’t Bloomberg quote him? BTC price chart for
09/20/2021 on Exmo | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com Time To
Consult Primary Sources Luckily for us, Newsbit linked to the
Anadolu Agency, a Turkish state-run news agency. This is as close
to primary sources as we’re going to get. A report on the whole
event that only casually mentions cryptocurrencies at the end. Is
the quote present in that report? What did President Erdogan say
exactly? Well, according to the Anadolu Agency: “Erdoğan said that
they do not have a problem of opening up to crypto money, on the
contrary, they have a separate war and struggle against them.
Erdogan said, “We will not give them such a premium, nor will we.
Because we will continue on our way with our money, which is our
fundamental identity in this matter.” Related Reading | Turkey’s
Economic Turmoil Shows Bitcoin Is a Better Bet Than Emerging
Markets That’s right! The same exact quote with the same exact
wording that Bloomberg used at the beginning. So, Bloomberg
literally copied and pasted their article. And Newsbit’s supposed
quote is just a rewording of that phrase. We don’t know exactly
what President Erdogan said, but at least his intention is clear:
Yes to his CBDC. War on cryptocurrencies. And we know for sure he
never said anything about a war against Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies
and Bitcoin are not synonymous, journalists. Featured Image by
Faruk Melik ÇEVİK on Unsplash - Charts by TradingView
Grafico Azioni Bitcoin (COIN:BTCUSD)
Storico
Da Apr 2024 a Mag 2024
Grafico Azioni Bitcoin (COIN:BTCUSD)
Storico
Da Mag 2023 a Mag 2024