Pro-gov’t broadcaster claims GTA cheat codes used in Turkey’s failed coup attempt
ANKARA
A reporter for the pro-government broadcaster ATV has invited derision after claiming that cheat codes belonging to the popular video game Grand Theft Auto IV were used in the failed coup attempt of July 15, which was blamed on the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ).In footage broadcast on the channel, the reporter finds a notebook inside a garbage container on which GTA IV cheat codes to gain health or armor are written in a notebook.
“There are also strange notes from FETÖ put in garbage containers. Here, it looks like there is a code for the coup in a notebook. It is titled ‘cheats’ but health and weapon, health and armor, weather, helicopter, motorbike and weapons cheats and many more used in the coup attempt are included in these notes,” the reporter says.
“[President Recep] Tayyip Erdoğan is purging all of them with God’s help,” a man rifling through garbage says at the end of the report.
Meanwhile, the broadcaster later apologized for the report, saying it was both the reporter’s and the editorial board’s mistake.