Turkish ‘expert’ claims footage shows jinn, deletes post after it was revealed as monkey

ISTANBUL

A Turkish man who presents himself as a “bioenergy expert and metaphysicist” has triggered a social media storm after he posted a video claiming that it shows a “jinn.” 

“This video was recorded yesterday by one of my followers. For those who asked us what it is, we have detected that it is a jinn wandering in a field,” Salih Memişoğlu said in an Instagram post on Dec. 10.

As it almost always happens with allegedly supernatural “proofs,” the video was in extremely low resolution. Still, the post went viral on social media this week and the reactions apparently exceeded Memişoğlu’s expectations.

“How cute!” one social media user said jokingly, while hundreds of others shared their suspicions that the “jinn” simply looked like a monkey wearing a T-shirt.

As tongue-in-cheek comments poured in, Memişoğlu deleted his post.

In a confusing statement on Dec. 11, he said the text in his post was not written by himself, although he did not deny that he shared the video.

“I apologize for the misinformation. Please do not believe in any information that you do not personally hear from me through any platform,” he said in a tweet.

According to local media reports, Memişoğlu was an advisor for the Turkish horror movie series titled “Azazil.”

Jinn, also Anglicized as genies, are supernatural creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian and later Islamic theology.