2012 Video Of Turkish Police Dispersing Protesters Falsely Shared As France

A nearly eight-year-old clip showing Turkish police using water cannon and tear gas shells on protesters offering prayers during a sit-in protest is being shared falsely claiming that Muslims in France were attacked by French police for praying on the street.

The clip is being shared in the backdrop of a French teacher Samuel Paty who was beheaded outside his school on October 16, 2020, by a Chechen origin radical Islamist for showing his class caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that were deemed to be offensive by some.

French President Emmanuel Macron while defending the ideal of free speech had criticised Islamists and vowed not to "give up cartoons" depicting the Prophet Mohammed. This led to calls on social media by many Muslim users to boycott French products in protest.

In the viral clip one can see security forces using water cannon and tear gas shells on protesters praying on the street.

The 1.15 minutes clip is being shared with the caption, "French police attacked Muslims praying on the streets of Yüksekova."

Click here to view, and here for an archive.

Viral on Facebook

On searching with the same caption on Facebook, we found that the clip was being shared with the false claim.

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FACT-CHECK

On breaking the clip into key-frames and performing a reverse image search using Google Images, we found articles on Trukish websites that had photos from the same incident as in the viral video which stated that the incident happened in Yüksekova, Turkey. Yüksekova lies in Turkey and not France as being falsely claimed in the viral caption.

According to a report in Haberturk dated November 9, 2012, a group of high school students came together on Cengiz Topel Street in Yüksekova and had held a sit-in to draw attention to the ongoing hunger strikes in prisons.

It further stated that the students were shouting slogans in favor of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) with Öcalan flags in their hands and did not disperse despite warning from the police, after which tear gas and pressurized water was used on the group by the cops.

We also found the same video dated November 12, 2012, in which the description when translated from Turkish reads, "The events that took place during the 'civil Friday prayers' in Yüksekova district of Hakkari put those who prayed in a difficult situation."

The same set of events can be seen in the original video as the viral clip which is now being shared.

On comparing this 2012 clip with the viral clip, we found that both are the same, as visuals in both the clips exactly match.

BOOM has previously debunked misinformation after the killing of the French teacher in Paris as unrelated videos and images have been shared with false claims.

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