Turkey’s media watchdog has launched a formal investigation into Sozcu TV following remarks aimed at Ahmad al-Sharaa, head of Syria’s interim administration, the authority (@rtukkurumsal) said on July 24.

“On a television channel, statements were made containing unfounded accusations against the legitimate President of our neighbour Syria, which could harm good neighbourly relations and are incompatible with the foreign policy vision, core principles and diplomatic doctrine of the Republic of Turkey,” the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) said.

The legitimate one

It is notable that RTUK referred to Sharaa as Syria's “legitimate President”, because the UN is somewhat confused about his status. Since Sharaa’s armed group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) captured Damascus in December 2024, the UN has referred to him in many ways, including:

• leader of the new administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who formerly went by the nom de guerre, Mohammad Al-Jolani,
• caretaker authorities headed by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa
• de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa
• head of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham and the caretaker authority in Damascus
• caretaker leader and a former leader of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham
• the caretaker administration led by Ahmed al-Sharaa
• leader of the caretaker administration in Damascus
• Syria’s interim President
• [Interim Prime Minister] Ahmed al-Sharaa
• President (Ahmed) al-Sharaa
• interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa
• transitional government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa
• Syria’s transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa
• leader of the Syrian Government under his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa
• and since November 2025, President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

In 2025, Shaara staged something called “elections”. Turkey also holds some “elections” on a regular basis.

In September 2025, Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Ankara, said that Donald Trump told him to give Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, legitimacy.

In June 2025, Reuters claimed that the Shaara administration in Damascus coordinated a massacre against the Alevis (or Alawis, Alawites) in Syria’s coastal region three months earlier in March 2025.

Terrorists with ties

The statements that were referred to by RTUK were made by Serap Belovacikli, a TV presenter at Sozcu TV. On July 23, Belovacikli and an opposition MP discussed, in a phone interview, the government’s latest attempts to pass legislation that will provide an amnesty to Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

After the call, Belovacikli said: “Here [Turkey] is not a Syria. Here we do not have a nation in which everyone will applaud a killer when you make him president, [applaud] an al-Nusra member when you put a tie on him. The Republic of Turkey is a state founded by the commander-in-chief, ghazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. A state founded by him and his comrades-in-arms. A state founded together with the nation. You cannot force this nation to show respect to two terrorists when you make them wear ties. Here is not Syria. Here is Turkey.”

Missed the latest

Belovacikli obviously missed the latest developments as to the official status of Shaara.

The US Department of State dropped its $10mn bounty on him in December 2024. In July 2025, Washington formally revoked HTS’ designation as a foreign terrorist organisation. That move was followed by the removal of Sharaa from the US Treasury’s specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) list in November 2025.

In the same month, the UN security council adopted a resolution officially removing Sharaa from the UN terror sanctions blacklist targeting Al-Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates.

The UK and other Western governments formally lifted their corresponding terror designations in late 2025.

It was in 2018 that Turkey designated HTS a terrorist organisation. In January 2025, HTS dissolved itself. Turkey’s government is yet to make any announcement removing HTS from its list of terrorist organisations.