Video of a Kurdish Fighter Shooting Down a Turkish Helicopter Is Outdated

Misbar investigated the circulating video and found the claim to be misleading.

After conducting a thorough reverse image search, Misbar’s team found the footage to be older than claimed.

Old Video Shows a Kurdish Fighter Shooting Down a Turkish Helicopter

Contrary to social media users’ claim, the video was not shot during the recent Kurdish-Turkish clashes.

Misbar’s team traced the original footage back to May 2016. An Indian media channel uploaded the original video to YouTube on May 15, 2016, under the title, “Kurd fighter shot down Turkish helicopter.”

Furthermore, the Daily Mail newspaper uploaded the same video to a published article on May 15, 2016. 

According to the newspaper, the scene shows a Turkish AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter flying over mountains, seemingly preparing to attack before being taken down by a Kurdish fighter, dressed in camouflage and carrying a large surface-to-air missile.

According to The Aviationist, Gerilla TV, affiliated with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), first uploaded the video at the time.

The Recent Turkish-Kurdish Clashes

In late November 2024, Turkish airstrikes in northeast Syria cut off access to electricity and water for over a million people, potentially violating international law, according to experts.

Between October 2019 and January 2024, Turkey launched more than 100 attacks on oil fields, gas facilities, and power stations in the Kurdish-controlled Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), according to BBC data. 

These attacks worsened the already dire humanitarian crisis in a region struggling with a years-long civil war and four years of severe drought, worsened by climate change.

Turkey stated that its actions targeted the “sources of income and capabilities” of Kurdish separatist groups, which it considers terrorist organizations.

The AANES accused Turkey of attempting to “destroy our people’s existence.”

The people in the region are caught between Syria’s conflict and Turkey’s conflict with Kurdish-led forces, which established the AANES in 2018. 

Turkey views the Kurdish militia that leads the main military force in the AANES as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for decades. 

Turkey, the E.U., the U.K., and the U.S. designated the PKK as a terrorist organization.

According to The National, Turkey views the SDF's main group, the People's Defence Units (YPG), as linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

A regional Kurdish leader told The National that Syria could quickly slide back into civil war if Damascus fails to establish an inclusive government after the collapse of the Assad regime.

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