Is it true that the Turkish magazine Leman came out with these covers dedicated to events in Georgia?

In August 2023, Russian-speaking Telegram channels distributed caricatures allegedly published by the Turkish satirical publication and dedicated to scandals around the visit of the Russian liner in Batumi and the concert of The Killers in Shekvetili. We checked the reliability of these messages.

Cover about the Russian liner in Batumi

On the morning of July 27, a liner with 800 tourists mainly from Russia entered the port of Batumi. Some of the travelers in an interview with local television channel They questioned Independence of Georgia (“We are the Soviet Union. We are a single country, large, beautiful”), others denied The occupation of part of the Georgian territory after the 2008 war. By evening, protesters gathered by the ship - they expressed Dissatisfaction with the arrival of the liner from Sochi and demonstrated posters condemning a full -scale invasion of the Russian Federation to Ukraine last year and aggression against Georgia 15 years ago. The situation repeated four days later, when the liner arrived in Batumi again - police officers Detained more than 20 people. President of the country Salome Zurabishvili supported the demonstrators, the ruling party "Georgian Dream" announced the "provocation".

In early August, there were reports that the Turkish satirical magazine Leman was released under the cover that ridiculed the protest in Batumi and the signature “Georgian animators take the monopoly from the Turks to the entertainment of Russian tourists”. Telegram was told about this cover, in particular, TV presenters Vladimir Solovyov (246,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) and Ruslan Ostashko (122,000), publicist Armen Gasparyan (77,000), as well as channels Goturk (71,000), "Ramzai"(54,000),"Firing"(17,000) and"Summary"(15,000). Users shared caricature Facebook, X (former Twitter), ""Zena" And Livejournal. Notes on the allegedly new Leman cover were released "Arguments and facts","Notebook" SM News And "Mriya".

The cover indicates that it was No. 1636 dated August 2, 2023 (although it began to spread through Telegram a day before). On Official website There is no Turkish publication. At the same time, the present No. 1636 was released for sale under Another coverdedicated to cutting forests in the southeast of Turkey to expand the coal mine-this is the decision of the authorities Caused Protests of local residents.

Technical details also testify to the fact that the cover is fed. In particular, the font used on the barcode is significantly different from the fact that the publisher of the Turkish magazine uses on real covers.

Even in the evening of August 1, the cartoonist of the magazine Tunja Akgun Published Dedicated to the events in Batumi, the image with the signature "They stubbornly continue to release fake Leman covers." Soon that the cover is fake reported In its verified profile, the magazine itself.

The earliest publication with a fake caricature, which was “verified”, was able to detect placed In the Telegram channel "Sheikh Tamir" (121,000 views) on August 1 at 14:58 Moscow time. Earlier from this channel already It began The spread of fake cartoons allegedly published in Leman.

The cover of the concert The Killers

On August 15, a concert of the American group The Killers took place in the arena in the Georgian Shekvetili. By tradition, the frontman of the group Brandon Flawers proposed to take a drum installation to anyone who wish from the audience for one song. The musician chose a young man with a poster and asked where he came from - it turned out that he was from Russia. The joint performance of the song with this viewer caused a whistle in the hall, after which Flawers He called Visitors to unity said that they were all his brothers and sisters. Some of the spectators left the site because of these words, others Continued Sing the musicians and show them the middle finger. Subsequently The Killers And Black Sea Arena They apologized to those who touched the words of Flawers.

Soon, the allegedly new Leman cover began to be distributed to Telegram - on it, visitors to the concert in Shekveti were depicted in the form of clowns, and a signature “Clows against The Killers” was placed under the name of the magazine. This caricature was published, in particular, a publicist Armen Gasparyan (70,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), as well as channels "Optimist in civilian clothes 🇷🇺"(12 000),"Vzvod"(5900), ZNAEM PRAVDY (4900) and "Tasking News"(2600). Users shared the cover Facebook.

Judging by the weekend, the caricature was placed on the cover of issue No. 1639 of August 16, 2023. The Leman numbers released on that day (No. 1638), and on the official website of the magazine it looks completely different - the cover Dedicated the influence of elections on society.

As in the case of the allegedly cover of Leman about the events in Batumi, the caricature dedicated to the scandal around the concert The Killers is equipped with a barcode - it again used the wrong font. This detail quite often issues fake covers of foreign satirical magazines, which have been more than a year distribute Prochremple Telegram channels.

The Leman editors in its social networks did not comment on this fake cover-probably due to the fact that it spread much weaker than her “predecessor”.

TGSTAT service data indicate that the first fake was published by the Telegram channel "Before everyone else. Well, almost. Special operation"(11,000 views), where the corresponding post appeared on August 17 at 08:56 Moscow time. This channel is a record holder for the spread of such fake covers. It was “verified” that over the past year, he was the first to place more than 20 such cartoons, including alleged Leman.

Photo on the cover: Telegram screenshot

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

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