2010 Photo of Turkish Aid to Pakistan Resurfaced Online
The Claim
The image shows the first Turkish plane carrying goods to help the victims of the recent floods in Pakistan.
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Emerging story
Facebook and Twitter users have recently circulated an image of a plane purporting that it shows a Turkish plane transporting relief supply to help the recent flood victims in Pakistan.
“Türkiye is sending its first plane with relief goods today to help flood victims in Pakistan,” a Twitter user wrote along with the hashtag #FloodinPakistan.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar has investigated the claim and found it to be misleading. The image is outdated and unrelated to the recent floods in Pakistan.
Turkish Aid for the 2010 Flood Victims in Pakistan
After Google Reverse Image Search yielded no results, Misbar’s team zoomed in on the image to facilitate reading the text on the supplies’ package. But the image’s bad quality did not help. However, we still could read in the Turkish language “iHH iNSANi YARDIM YAKFI” and “PAKISTAN-2010” below the poster.
A quick search of “iHH” revealed that it refers to the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, a Turkish organization with “the purpose of delivering aid to all people in need, who have experienced a catastrophe, who are victims of war, natural disaster, etc.”
Running another advanced search using the keywords “floods,” “Pakistan,” “IHH,” and “Turkish aid” revealed a Facebook post from October 2010 including a photograph featuring a similar Turkish aircraft with clear writing on the package.
An advanced search on the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation website directed us to an article posted in August 2010 about the organization’s aid sent to Pakistan during the 2010 floods. The report also features the image featured in the misleading posts.
Photo Description: A screenshot from the article on the foundation’s website.
According to the article, the foundation has flown a cargo aircraft laden with relief supplies to Pakistan to be delivered to flood victims. The plane was sent to Pakistan with 600,000 Turkish liras worth of supplies. It contained supplies of canned foods and medication for the families affected by the floods.
According to the foundation, the aircraft also carried powdered milk since children were the most affected by the floods.
2010 Floods in Pakistan
According to the BBC, twelve million people were affected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces. A further two million were affected in Sindh during what the article described as the worst floods in Pakistan’s history after flooding had submerged villages during the first week of August 2010, killing at least 1,600 villagers.
Turkey Provided Relief Supplies to the Flood Victims
On August 30, 2022, Turkey announced it sent planes carrying tents, food rations, medicines, and other relief supplies for flood victims in Pakistan, mentioning that the aircraft landed in Karachi. The Anadolu agency reported that The Turkish Relief and Disaster Agency would establish a tent village in the Badin district of southern Sindh province to help the affected families. “With the latest arrivals, a total of seven aircraft loaded with relief items have landed in Karachi over the past three days,” the agency reported.
2022 Pakistan Floods Cover One-third of the Country
The BBC reported that, in southern Pakistan, people suffered from record floods submerging a third of the country and killing more than 1,100. Local authorities said that 1,2 million people were displaced in Dadu district in Sindh, where hundreds of habitants were submerged.
Misbar has already addressed numerous claims related to the incident and debunked several claims that rely on visuals and old pictures circulated in relation to the floods, including a viral image purporting to show a Turkish plane carrying humanitarian aid to Pakistan.
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