Wrote: Endrit Berisha
Through a TikTok post, it has been claimed that Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said that Kosovo is planning to open a weapons factory and that the agreement with Turkey is very close.
The claim was published by the account "gladiatorkosova1" on TikTok on September 6.
What's wrong with this publication?
"Albin Kurti: We are planning to open a weapons factory in Kosovo, the agreement with the Turkish state is very close!" is the caption that this account put on a photo of Prime Minister Kurti with the president of the Turkish Defense Industry Agency, Haluk Gorgun, during the latter's visit to Kosovo on September 3.
The claim about the weapons factory turns out to be false. Kurti did not say such a sentence. This is confirmed by taking into account all public announcements regarding Kurti's meeting with Gorgun.
This account also captioned the photo "Super news."
Link to the publication of "gladiatorkosova1" on Tiktok:
Initially, the Government's official announcement about the meeting states that Kurti thanked Turkey for cooperation in the field of defense.
Part of the press release Prime Minister's Office:
"He said that the Republic of Kosovo will continue purchasing military equipment from Turkey, which remains one of Kosovo's main partners. The meeting also discussed the possibilities of cooperation in the development of the defense industry, namely the production of ammunition, and the conditions that our country offers to potential investors from Turkey."
Gorgun wrote about the meeting on his X (former Twitter) account. He thanked Kosovo for its hospitality, but did not mention the issue of weapons production in Kosovo.
"We informed them about Turkey's capabilities in the defense industry. We had the opportunity to discuss current issues. I thank the Prime Minister for his hospitality.", wrote Gorguni on X while also publishing four photos (see here).
Kosovo's Minister of Defense, Ejup Maqedonci, also met with Gorguni, who said they discussed close defense cooperation between the two countries.
"Investment in the defense industry is one of the areas we discussed during the meeting and to which we are paying special attention. The Republic of Turkey has continuously made an extraordinary contribution to building the capacities of the Kosovo Security Force, a contribution for which we are grateful and thankful. We will continue to further increase the capacities of our army by cooperating with our allies. The development of our army is and will always be in the function of maintaining peace and security, these are our values, which we have cultivated and have always remained loyal to.", he wrote in Facebook.
He wrote about this meeting in X also the institution that Gorgun leads. It was stated there that important issues in the field of the defense industry and future cooperation and joint projects were discussed at the meeting.
For more, hibrid.info searched on Google with the words “Kurti: We are planning to open an arms factory in Kosovo”. No news with this claim was found in the last month (see details).
Analyze:
The claim that Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said that he is planning to open a weapons factory in Kosovo and that the agreement with Turkey is very close is false.
The TikTok account “gladiatorkosova1” used a photo of Prime Minister Kurti and the president of the Turkish Defense Industry Agency, Haluk Gorgun, during the latter's visit to Kosovo on September 3rd to make this claim. This claim cannot be found in any credible source of information or in the official statements of state institutions whose heads met with Gorgun.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this claim as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The “Fake News” rating is given to informational content that is entirely fabricated or that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be defined as having been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.