In the last few days, Turkish media became incensed over a mosque in Greece that had displayed a Greek flag on a minaret.
Akşam Gazetes, even called this "provocative." Many social media users questioned what is "provocative" of a national flag being placed on a mosque, especially since many churches in Turkey have the Turkish national flag displayed.
Yunanistan'da çirkin provokasyon! Tarihi caminin minaresine Yunan bayrağı astılar https://t.co/MfrMWmgGAR pic.twitter.com/DDZZZYfeQm
— Akşam Gazetesi (@Aksam) June 1, 2020
Despite this contradiction, it has now been proven that the news, first reported by Demirören News Agency, used a manipulated photo.
Turkish fact-checking platform Teyit, discovered that the photo of the Ottoman-era mosque in Didymoteicho near the Greek-Turkish border, was actually taken in 2015.
They then revealed that the Greek flag was digitally added to the 5-year-old image.
Demirören News Agency claimed that the mayor had said a police investigation was opened and made an official statement that the flag was removed. The problem is that no official statement can be found, not even in local media in Didymoteicho.
It was 'reported' that the flag was raised at night.
Besides it looking digitally edited on, screening of the images show how it was digitally added to the old photo that first appeared on a tourist informative website in 2015.
Turkey is one of the lowest ranked countries for media freedoms in the world, is the second most susceptible country surveyed on the European continent and its surrounds to fake news, has the most journalists jailed in the whole world, and 90% of media is government controlled.
Days ago Erdoğan’s said “Look at Athens, there is not even a single mosque of ours today. They were all completely destroyed,” omitting the Fethiye Mosque located in the Roman Agora, built in the 1600’s. The Turkish president also omits the famous Tzistarakis Mosque built in 1759 and famous for being located in the historical and touristic Monastiraki district, as reported by Greek City Times.
