Claim: Pakistan has the flag of Türkiye on its currency, gives free weapons to Azerbaijan, is the only country that does not recognise Israel and Armenia as states, and is the only Muslim country that supports all the Turkic nations.
Fact: Pakistan has its own flag — not Türkiye’s — on its currency and there’s no evidence that it provides free weapons to Azerbaijan. It is actually the only nation that does not recognise Armenia. However, while Pakistan also does not recognise Israel as a nation, it is not the only country not to do so. Moreover, the word “supports” is subjective; therefore, the claim that it is “the only Muslim country that supports all the Turkic nations” cannot be verified.
On 12 February 2025, Facebook user ‘Aydın Aslan’ posted (archive) a reel containing a single image depicting a Pakistani banknote worth PKR 1,000 and the following text:
“PAKİSTAN’ın İsrail ve Ermenistan’ı Devlet olarak Tanımayan tek devlet olduğunu ! Azerbaycan’a parasız silah verdiğini ! Tüm Türk devletlerine Destek çıkan tek Müslüman ülke olduğunu ! Parasının üzerinde Türk bayrağının olduğunu Ve bununla ülke olarak gurur duyduklarını BİLİYORMUSUNUZ?
[Did you know that Pakistan is the only country that does not recognise Israel and Armenia as a state? That it gives weapons to Azerbaijan for free? That it is the only Muslim country that supports all the Turkic countries? That it has the Turkish flag on its money and that it is proud of it as a country?]”
The post came a day before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Pakistan on an official visit.
Erdoğan’s 2025 visit to Pakistan
President Erdoğan and First Lady Emine Erdoğan arrived in Pakistan on 13 February 2025 and were welcomed with a full state protocol. A flypast by F-16 fighter jets and a 21-gun salute was carried out to honour the dignitaries. The visit was the last part of his tour to three countries, which included Malaysia as well as Indonesia.
The Turkish president met his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, and the military chief General Syed Asim Munir.
The two countries “signed 24 agreements and MoUs to enhance bilateral cooperation” after the Pakistan-Türkiye High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council’s (HLSCC) seventh session in the federal capital, Islamabad.
Erdoğan addressed the Pakistan-Türkiye Business and Investment Forum, saying that Sharif and him had agreed “to continue our efforts to reach the $5 billion trade volume target” between the two countries. An announcement was made to construct “a special economic zone to be developed by Turkish firms”.
Erdoğan and Sharif also discussed the Cyprus, Palestine, and the Kashmir issues, countering terrorism, Afghanistan, and the need to reform the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) into a “more representative, democratic, transparent, and accountable” body through a comprehensive process.
The two also signed a joint declaration called, “Deepening, Diversifying, and Institutionalizing the Strategic Partnership,” which “outlines a renewed commitment to strengthen relations between Türkiye and Pakistan”. Among the cooperation agreements were those that covered defence, energy, trade, agriculture, and technology, among others.
Fact or Fiction?
The flags of Pakistan and Türkiye have a crescent and star in common; however, both are significantly different.
The former is green, with a small white portion on the left side; its crescent and star are closer to a 45-degree angle. The latter, however, is completely red and its crescent and star are more aligned with the horizontal axis. This can be seen in multiple photos available on Yeni Şafak, Hürriyet Daily News, IMAGO, and Getty Images. It is also perhaps why there has been confusion all along.
Secondly, the current PKR 1,000 banknote in circulation — since February 2007 — is indeed the same as the one shown in the claim, evident by the ‘Current Legal Tender’ page on the website of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). It is a part of the series introduced in 2005.
However, the SBP describes the flag as follows: “The crescent and five-pointed star surrounded in the printing design of Optical Variable Ink (OVI) appears at the obverse right of the note. The OVI design changes colour from magenta to green and green to magenta, when the note is viewed from different angles.”
Back in 2007 when the PKR 1,000 banknote was introduced, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Sardar Rashid Akbar Khan said it was a “big mistake” of the SBP to print a red-coloured flag of Pakistan, instead of the original green. Responding to his concern, then-National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain tasked a “standing committee to probe [the issue] and report within a month”, according to a Dawn report.
At the time, State Minister of Finance Omar Ayub Khan had said his ministry had “no supervisory control over the central bank”. The government was already aware of the issue of the flag’s colors and the SBP had already been inquired about it, he added.
The same day, the SBP issued a clarification, saying, “[The] Pakistani Flag does not appear on any of the banknote(s) issued by SBP. The crescent and five-pointed star appearing on the Rs1000/- banknote is only the state of art security feature which changes the shade of ink when viewed from different angles.
“This feature is very effective in combating the counterfeiting of currency and through this the genuineness of the high denomination banknote can easily be judged by the general public,” it added.
A few months later, then-Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan told Turkish journalist Aysegul Ekinci that the red flag was a “mistake”. He said concerns were raised after “Pakistani flag was gone” from the PKR 1,000 banknote “when the printing was done on a different paper” and, “instead, a Turkish flag with a white crescent and star on a red background was officially introduced”.
As for the claim that Pakistan provides free weapons to Azerbaijan, Soch Fact Check did not find any existing evidence to substantiate it. Leaders of the two countries have been on visits over the past years and have spoken about enhancing the number of military exercises and boosting defence cooperation, thereby strengthening decades-long ties. The friendly nations “signed a defense agreement in May of 2003”.
Reports from February 2024 indicated that Pakistan and Azerbaijan signed the “largest ever fighter jet sale deal” reportedly worth $1.6 billion in which the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) was set to export JF-17C Block-III fighter jets to the Azerbaijan Air Force. In September the same year, Dawn quoted Azerbaijan’s presidency as saying the jets were already “integrated into the arsenal of Azerbaijan’s Air Force”.
Recently, in January 2025, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said Pakistan was “finalising [an] agreement with Azerbaijan on arms trade, defense infrastructure, intelligence sharing”, as per an Arab News report.
There’s no mention of Pakistan providing free weapons or defence equipment of any kind to Azerbaijan for free.
It is true that Pakistan does not recognise Israel as a state; however, it is not the only country not to do so.
It is also true that Pakistan is the only country that does not recognise Armenia due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.
Pakistan has regularly expressed support to Azerbaijan, as evident here, here, and here, as well as through an interview of Armen Sarkissian, a former -president of Armenia.
Pakistan was among the first countries to recognise Azerbaijan’s independence in December 1991. It has also consistently supported the latter.
On its website, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry lists Azerbaijan in Central Asia but makes no mention of Armenia in Central Asia or West Asia.
Lastly, whether Pakistan is the “only Muslim country that supports all the Turkic nations” — which comprise Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan — cannot be verified as the word “support” is subjective.
Virality
The reel by ‘Aydın Aslan’ has been viewed over 1.5 million times so far.
Soch Fact Check also found the claim here, here, here, here, here, and here. It was also posted on Instagram here.
The claim has surfaced in the past in 2021, 2020, and 2014.
Conclusion: Pakistan has its own flag, not the Turkish flag, on its currency. There’s no evidence that it provides free weapons to Azerbaijan. It is true that it does not recognise Israel as a nation but it is not the only country not to do so. However, Pakistan is actually the only state that does not recognise Armenia. Moreover, the word “supports” is subjective; therefore, the claim that it is “the only Muslim country that supports all the Turkic nations” cannot be verified.
Background image in cover photo: hasan zaidi
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com