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Erdogan urges Trump to pursue Iran talks and highlights Gaza attacks

Turkish president discusses regional tensions and defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in call with US counterpart

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
Diplomatic Dialogue: Bridging Tensions for Global Peace

What this story says

  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged US President Donald Trump to pursue talks with Iran to de-escalate tensions, as reported by the Turkish presidency.
  • The call also covered the Gaza conflict, a defence agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and increased Israeli attacks on Palestinians during the second phase of Trump’s peace plan.
  • Left-rated Cumhuriyet and centre-rated Devdiscourse led on Erdogan’s diplomatic push, while right-rated outlets emphasised regional security and the defence pact.
  • None of the right-rated digests mentioned the Turkish presidency’s statement on the timing of Israeli attacks relative to Trump’s peace plan.

Who covered it

Left 14%(1)Centre 29%(2)Right 57%(4)

Percentages are shares of the 7 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 6 of the 13 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

66/100

Craft

62/100

Hype

15/100

13 sources · methodology

Thin on the left so far

Only 1 of the 7 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone with US President Donald Trump on 17 August 2026. The Turkish presidency’s Communications Directorate said Erdogan urged Trump to pursue talks with Iran to reduce tensions between the two countries. Erdogan offered Turkey’s support for peace efforts, as reported by Cumhuriyet and Devdiscourse.

The leaders also discussed the ongoing conflict in Gaza, a defence agreement signed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and bilateral relations between Turkey and the US. The Turkish presidency stated that Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza had increased during the second phase of Trump’s peace plan, a detail carried by Cumhuriyet and Devdiscourse.

What the coverage left out

None of the right-rated digests mentioned the Turkish presidency’s statement that Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza had increased during the second phase of Trump’s peace plan. The left-rated Cumhuriyet and centre-rated Devdiscourse carried the detail.

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 2 times, most recently on 18 Aug 2026, 00:30, and will add the sides that appear.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

Erdogan urges Trump to pursue Iran talks and highlights Gaza attacks
CumhuriyetLeft

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

1 rated outlet

  • Cumhuriyet led on Erdogan’s call for diplomacy in US-Iran tensions, quoting the Turkish presidency’s statement that "diplomacy should be utilised to the maximum extent" and that Turkey would continue to support peace efforts. The report also carried Erdogan’s concern over increased Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza during the second phase of Trump’s peace plan, and his emphasis on Turkey’s role in regional stability through the defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Centre

2 rated outlets

  • Devdiscourse, one of the two centre-rated outlets with a full report, led on Erdogan’s offer of Turkey’s support for peace initiatives and his call for sustained dialogue with Iran. The report included Erdogan’s concerns about Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza during the second phase of Trump’s peace plan, and noted the defence agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
  • WTVB’s digest, sourced from Reuters, carried Erdogan’s urging of Trump to pursue talks with Iran and Turkey’s offer of support for peace efforts. It did not mention the defence agreement or the timing of Israeli attacks.

Right

4 rated outlets

  • The four right-rated digests, The Straits Times, Mehr News Agency, Anadolu Ajansı and Daily Sabah, all led on Erdogan’s call for talks with Iran and Turkey’s offer of support. Mehr News Agency and Anadolu Ajansı also mentioned the defence agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which The Straits Times and Daily Sabah did not.
  • None of the right-rated digests mentioned the Turkish presidency’s statement that Israeli attacks on Palestinians had increased during the second phase of Trump’s peace plan.

Read it at the source

13 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

1

Centre

2

Right

4

Not rated

6

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Erdogan urges Trump to pursue Iran talks and highlights Gaza attacks?
Of the 7 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 14% are rated left, 29% are rated centre, 57% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 13. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Erdogan urges Trump to pursue Iran talks and highlights Gaza attacks left or right?
Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 7 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
Is the coverage of Erdogan urges Trump to pursue Iran talks and highlights Gaza attacks biased?
Erdogan urges Trump to pursue Iran talks and highlights Gaza attacks is one event reported by 13 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Erdogan urges Trump to pursue Iran talks and highlights Gaza attacks?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Erdogan urges Trump to pursue Iran talks and highlights Gaza attacks?
13 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What did Erdogan urge Trump to do about Iran?
Erdogan urged Trump to pursue talks with Iran to de-escalate tensions, as reported by the Turkish presidency. He offered Turkey’s support for peace efforts and emphasised the importance of diplomacy, a detail carried by Cumhuriyet and Devdiscourse.
Which regional issues did Erdogan and Trump discuss?
Erdogan and Trump discussed the Gaza conflict, a defence agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and bilateral relations. The Turkish presidency also noted increased Israeli attacks on Palestinians during the second phase of Trump’s peace plan.
Did all outlets report the timing of Israeli attacks in Gaza?
No. The left-rated Cumhuriyet and centre-rated Devdiscourse reported the Turkish presidency’s statement that Israeli attacks on Palestinians had increased during the second phase of Trump’s peace plan. None of the right-rated digests mentioned this detail.

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

Erdogan urges Trump to pursue Iran talks and highlights Gaza attacks | MediaBias News