ISTANBUL
Turkish authorities have launched an investigation into a newspaper editor for publishing photographs and video footage purportedly showing trucks belonging to the Turkish intelligence service filled with weapons.
The public prosecutor of Adana province issued a statement saying the photos and video “do not reflect reality” and an investigation has been launched into individuals who publish them.
Istanbul prosecutor's office on Friday began a probe into Can Dundar, the editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet daily.
The paper ran a front-page story on Friday with the headline: “Here are the arms Erdogan says there were not.”
Accompanying photos showed several vehicles filled with weapons and ammunition, stacked under cardboard boxes containing medication. In one photograph, the serial numbers on the ammunition are visible.
On Friday, a court accepted Istanbul prosecutor's request for banning access to the online content showing the trucks.
In January 2014, several trucks were stopped by local gendarmerie in southern Adana and Hatay provinces on the grounds that they were loaded with ammunition, despite a national security law forbidding such a search.
The case saw the arrests of 26 soldiers.
Turkey's Interior Ministry said at the time that the trucks, which were reportedly carrying arms into northern Syria, were in reality conveying humanitarian aid to the Turkmen community in the war-torn country.
