At the beginning of January 2025, photographs of a meeting of European politicians with the new Syrian government circulated on the Internet, in which the figure of the German Foreign Minister was blurred out. Media and Internet users claimed that the official Syrian media did this at the instigation of the new authorities. We decided to check if this is true.
The fact that the German Foreign Minister was blurred out in a photo from an official meeting in Damascus was reported by major Russian media: “Channel One», "RIA Novosti», "Russian newspaper", RBC, Life.ru, "Vedomosti", "Kommersant", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", Lenta.ru and others. Popular Telegram channels also wrote about this, for example “Ax Live"(831,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Nexta Live (262,000) and "Newsach / Dvach"(202,000). The authors of some publications indicate that this was done by employees of media and social network accounts affiliated with the new leaders of Syria, while others indicate that this was done at the behest of the authorities. The edited pictures were also discussed on social networks (“VKontakte", X, Facebook) and on blogging platforms.
On January 3, 2025, German Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock, together with her French counterpart Jean Noël Barrault, made an official visit to Damascus. There politicians met with the new leader of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaawho came to power after the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime, and representatives of Syrian civil society. Before departure Burbock notedthat she is going to this meeting with the hope of resetting Syria's relations with Germany and the EU, but only if "the new Syrian society gives everyone in Syria, women and men, regardless of the ethnic or religious group to which they belong, a place in the political process, if it guarantees them rights and offers them protection."
As soon as the first footage of the meeting of European politicians with the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group hit the media, a scandal erupted: journalists and Internet users turned Please note that Sharaa shook hands with Barro as a sign of greeting, but in the case of Berbock he limited himself to a greeting gesture without physical contact. However, Sharaa’s greeting from the French politician can only be called a full handshake with a stretch: the men barely touched their fingertips. Burbock later statedthat they expected such a development of events, so Barro also did not intend to extend his hand to shake hands with the Syrian leader.
The scandal flared up with renewed vigor on January 5, when photographs of the meeting of the ministers with Sharaa appeared on the Internet, in which Berbock (and other women present there) were blurred out so that they were impossible to recognize. Many Russian media in their news reports referred to the German TV channel ntv, which published an article with the headline “A channel close to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham makes Berbok unrecognizable in photographs.” Judging by the links in the article, we are talking about the Almharar Telegram channel - on January 3 at 20:25 Moscow time there really were posted photo where the figure of the German minister is blurred. The account description states that this is the official channel of the Free Syria News Network. However, “Verified” was unable to find evidence that the channel is somehow connected with the new Syrian authorities and to some extent represents their official position. In the Facebook account of the same name and at all indicated, that the editorial office of the Free Syria News Network is located in Istanbul, Turkey. Journalists from Deutsche Welle clarified Syrian fact checkers from the Verify-Sy project asked whether Almharar had anything to do with the new Syrian authorities, and received a negative answer.
Moreover, on the same day, January 3, a few hours earlier, the same photos without any retouching were published in the official accounts of the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in X And Facebook. Burbock, like other women, is clearly visible in the photographs. The same goes for publications this news in accounts Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) is the state media outlet of Syria.
Thus, Annalena Berbock was blurred out in the photo from the meeting in Damascus not by the Syrian authorities, but by the editors of a private Telegram channel that is not directly connected with the new leaders of Syria and, apparently, does not represent their point of view. The official accounts of the Syrian Foreign Ministry and state media published original, unedited photographs in which Berbock, like other women, is not blurred.
Cover photo: @Almharar / Telegram
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