There are still many unanswered questions about the earthquakes that hit Syria and Turkey. At a time when the number of victims exceeds 45,000, there are posts on Facebook that continue to seek explanations for the natural disaster. In this case, a shared video concludes that, “exactly two weeks“before the earthquake, the Turkish authorities”murdered 24 Christianssimply because they are Christians, in the center of the public square” and suggests that the earthquake was a punishment from God: “Nobody touches those who are urgently needed by the Lord and that’s it”.
Post says earthquake in Turkey occurred after 24 Christians were killed. At that time, the death toll from the quake was 26,000. The most recent balance already accounts for more than 45,000 victims.
The earthquake struck the region close to the Turkey-Syria border on February 6, which means that, according to the video being released, it should be possible to find news reporting the death of 24 Christians, at the center of a public plaza. in Turkey, around January 23. In addition to the post do not quote any sources credible on the subject as well does not indicate a city where the mass execution allegedly took place: speech alone in the center of a “public square” in Turkey.
Only 0.2% of Turkey’s population is Christian, or about 170,000 people. By the way, Turkey is a secular country, where the state has no religion. Still, the failures of the Turkish regime when it comes to upholding human rights are well documented. In the 2021 report, Amnesty International identifies “deep flaws in the judicial system” and denounces the “homophobic rhetoric” of government authorities against people from the LGBT community. The document does not identify any violation of human rights by the Christian community in the country.
Let’s go back to the video that was shared on Facebook. There is no news about the execution of dozens of Christians, in a public square, in January of this year in Turkey. If it had really happened, it would be news in various international media. But a search of the information in this publication does not reveal any information about the alleged deaths of 24 Christians in Turkey. By the way, the local Christian community was one of the most involved in the start of relief operations in the most affected regions, in the south of the country.
And what happened in the earthquake that devastated the Turkish province of Gaziantep, can it be interpreted as a divine punishment? No. The Observer heard from experts such as Fernando Carrilho, head of the geophysics division of the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA), and João Duarte, a researcher in the geology department of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, who explain the geological reasons that are at the origin of the earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale. Southern Turkey is one of the areas with the highest seismic activity in the world, where three major tectonic plates meet: Eurasia, Arabia, and East Africa. In other words, it is “a complete puzzle of plate tectonics.”
Conclusion
There is no official information or reported by international media that “24 Christians were killed, simply for being Christians, in the center of the public square,” as alleged in the video shared on Facebook. The publication goes further and suggests that the earthquake was a punishment from God, but experts identify the reason for the devastating impact of the earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria, as it occurred in one of the most seismically active areas in the world.
Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:
MISTAKEN
In the Facebook rating system this content is:
FAKE: Main content claims are factually inaccurate. This option generally corresponds to “fake” or “mostly false” ratings on fact-checking sites.
NOTE: This content was curated by The Observer as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.
Source: Observadora
