Introduction
Link: https://gralhix.com/list-of-osint-exercises/osint-exercise-003/
Difficulty:
For beginners: Medium
For experts: EasyBriefing:
In April 2017 Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, the then president of Somalia, visited Turkey.
A news agency published a photo where he was seen shaking hands with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the country’s president.
The article did not disclose where the photo was taken.
Your task is to find out the name and coordinates of the location seen below.
Click [here](https://gralhix.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/003.jpg) to see the photo on its own.Attachment:
Solution
As always, before jumping on the photo, analyse the briefing.
We know a visit was done between two presidents in April 2017: Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo (Somalia) and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey).
We could only use these pieces of information to identify the meeting location.
With a simple Google search query:
https://www.tccb.gov.tr/en/news/542/74924/somali-cumhurbaskani-muhammed-cumhurbaskanligi-kulliyesinde
We know they met at the Presidential Complex in Turkey, then inspected the guard of honor and finally went back to the Presidential Complex.
Another easy Google query:
The photo confirms the location.
Simply go on Google Maps to find the coordinates:
There are two possibilities for the entrance (red and blue).
I never seen presidents entering a presidential building from the behind when they meet. It is always done from the main entrance.
So it is very unlikely the red cross.
But let’s be sure of that.
There is a virtual tour available on the government’s website: https://www.tccb.gov.tr/common/sanaltur/tur/Kulliye/index.html
We clearly idenfity the main entrance and the door which is on the photo.
Another way to locate the image would have been to perform a reverse image search on it:
But it gives us a false positive. By finding the source of image, we find articles talking about the meeting between them but the location is not always specified.
This is a good example to show that the reverse image search function is a very good tool and can save us precious time but it is not always the best solution.
Human comprehension, analyse and deduction are still the best skills in OSINT!
Flag
Location’s name: Presidential Complex of Turkey, Beştepe, Cumhurbaşkanlığı Blv, 06560 Yenimahalle/Ankara, Türkiye
Coordinates: Aprox. 39.931126, 32.799617