Ministry of Defense statement on armed forces’ social media post

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The Ministry of National Defense has made a statement about the social media post of the Turkish Armed Forces, where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's Monumental Tomb in Ankara was shared on July 26.

CLICK - 'Damn' part omitted from Friday sermon following social media post of armed forces

After the Turkish Armed Forces posted a message with a picture of soldiers in front of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's Monumental Tomb in the capital Ankara on July 26, the "damn" part of the Friday sermon read out by President of Religious Affairs Ali Erbaş in Hagia Sophia on July 24 was omitted from the official website of the Presidency of Religious Affairs.

Afterwards, it has been widely debated whether the picture in question was intended as a message or not.

'It was decided a month ago'

Amid these debates, Hürriyet newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Ahmet Hakan has said that he wrote to the Ministry of National Defense about the issue and has received a statement in response to his call.

Hakan shared the statement on his column today (July 30).

In its statement, the Ministry has indicated that the post in question, which was "one of the 1,891 photos shared on the Instagram page of the General Staff, was associated with some issues on the agenda." The Ministry has said that these associations should be "regarded as comments exceeding their purpose and aiming to draw the Turkish Armed Forces into a debate."

The Ministry of Defense has also noted that the related picture was "one of the routine photos, the date of whose publication was set a month ago."

"It is nothing but a far-fetched approach to perceive or interpret this photo and similar other photos as a means of giving messages about the current issues," the Ministry has indicated further.

Concluding its statement, it has said, "It is important to remember that, in the current political, social, military and economic climate that the world and our country are going through, we have to be careful and vigilant in unity." (AS/SD)