When Kurdish supporters began uploading videos and photos of a Kurdish man being dragged through the streets of Sirnak, there was skepticism and denial.
On Sunday Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced on his Facebook Turkey will be conducting an "investigation" into the incident, a quick turnaround from the initial claims the footage had been doctored.
Turkish pro-gov't accounts and media went from denying the initial pic to claiming it was photoshop to body was being "checked for bombs". +
— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) October 5, 2015Claims that the video had been Photoshopped became more and more unlikely.
There was another video that popped up on social media, appeared to have been taken inside the military vehicle as the body was dragged. The extra footage, from another angle, made it difficult to believe the incident had been doctored.
Then Turkish state media appeared to use Photoshop themselves — here's an obvious airbrushing job to take the body out of the photo.
Photoshop ile fotoğraftaki cesedi silenler, terörist bile olsa bir ölüye zulmedenler kadar alçaktır pic.twitter.com/NMoe1YP0FG
— Nedim Şener (@nedimsener2010) October 4, 2015
Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition People's Democratic Party (HDP) identified the man in the footage as 24-year old actor Haci Lokman Birlik, the brother-in-law of an HDP parliament member.
Turkey and the HDP have different stories for how he died. In a tweet, the HDP said the man was "executed" in Sirnak.
#Demirtaş: Look at this photo very well. It was taken in Şırnak the day before. Nobody should forget about this photo, because we will not.
— HDP English (@HDPenglish) October 4, 2015Turkey claims Birlik was killed after he attacked officers with a rocket launcher during security forces' clashes with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), according to The New York Times.
Here's some of the footage that sparked outrage. Warning, it's disturbing.
Boycott everything, start with 869 (in barcode), stop supporting barbarity. #TerroristTurkey #BoycottTurkey pic.twitter.com/XHIZ77dpZM
— Tujo (@tujname) October 4, 2015By Hayat Norimine
