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| - Fact Check: Old video of police action on Muslims in Turkey revived during recent Erdogan-Macron feud
Amid controversies, a video of police using water cannon and tear gas shells on people sitting on a street to offer prayers is circulating on social media. India Today Anti-Fake News War room (AFWA) found the viral video is from Yüksekova in Turkey and not France.
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India Today Fact Check
The incident took place in Turkey in 2012. Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters and people who were offering Friday prayers in Yüksekova in Turkey.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday dismissed a cartoon by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo as a "disgusting attack" against Muslims. The front-page caricature of Erdogan shows him in a t-shirt and underpants, drinking and lifting up the skirt of a woman wearing hijab. Hebdo's cartoon comes at a time when frictions have intensified between Erdogan and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron has also come under heavy criticism over his remarks on radical Islam after a teacher in France was beheaded by an 18-year-old student for showing his pupils Prophet Mohammed cartoons.
Amid these controversies, a video of police using water cannon and tear gas shells on people sitting on a street to offer prayers is circulating on social media. It is being said that it is the French police who is attacking the praying Muslims. Though the claim in the video does not provide a specific context, it is being shared as a part of the recent Erdogan-Macron controversy.
Multiple users on Facebook have posted the viral video clip. The caption to one such claim reads, "French police attacked muslims praying on the streets of Y¼ksekova!
India Today Anti-Fake News War room (AFWA) found the viral video is from Y¼ksekova in Turkey and not France. The incident took place in 2012. Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters and people who were offering Friday prayers in Y¼ksekova.
The archived versions of the posts are saved here, here, here, and here.
AFWA PROBE
Y¼ksekova is a city and a district of Hakkari Province of Turkey.
With the help of InVid and reverse image search, we found that several websites in the Turkish language had published articles regarding this incident in 2012. The same pictures and videos were posted in these articles.
This incident was also mentioned recently in an article on the English news website "AL-Monitor".
According to these reports, a group of high school students came together on Cengiz Topel Street in Yuksekova and held a sit-in to draw attention to the ongoing hunger strikes in the prisons. It was Friday and prayers were being offered by Kurdish Muslims on the streets. Police used tear gas shell and water cannon to disperse the protesters and the people who were offering prayers.
THE VIRAL VIDEO
The same video was uploaded on a local YouTube channel called "Y¼ksekova Haber Portali" on November 9, 2012. The description of the video in the Turkish language reads, "The events that took place during the 'civil Friday prayers' in Y¼ksekova district of Hakkari put those who prayed in a difficult situation."
We can also see "Polis" written over the vehicle in the viral video - which is what the law enforcement in Turkey is called. The vehicle seen on the viral video fitted with water cannon is the armored vehicle "TOMA" used for riot controls in Turkey. We found that the vehicle seen in the viral video is the same TOMA vehicle used by the Turkey police.
Hence, it can safely be concluded that the viral video is from 2012 and not from France but Turkey. The video is circulated linking it to the ongoing feud between Erdogan and Macron but it is not related.
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