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BBC’s investigation desk “BBC Reality Check” has investigated Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın’s statement that "More than 700 attacks have been launched from the Afrin area against Turkish cities. The research conducted by checking different sources concluded that the number of attacks launched during the aforementioned period is 15.
When launching the offensive into Afrin, Turkey defined this offensive as “legitimate self-defense” and the claims of “attacks launched from Afrin” played important role in support of this thesis. One of the most high-ranking officials of state, the Presidential Spokesperson Kalın’s article published on CNN’s website came to the fore.
BBC Reality Check brought together information coming from different sources including state-run Anadolu Agency and Doğan News Agency. As a result of this research, it came to conclusion only 26 attacks were launched from Syria between January 1, 2017 and January 20, 2018 - and only 15 of these came from Afrin. (ŞA/TK)
