A photograph of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son, Bilal, sitting in an operations room for drones during Turkish attacks on Syria has sparked controversy on social media and anger among the government's main opposition.

The publication of the photograph by Selçuk Bayraktar, Erdoğan’s son in law and a director of the drone company, on Twitter, drew swift response from the Republican People’s Party, which questioned why Bilal Erdoğan, who has no official position in the government or military, was permitted to sit beside military personnel as Turkey attacked Kurdish targets three days ago.

Some pro-government Twitter-users immediately claimed that the photograph was actually from June 2015, when Bilal had paid a visit to the base, and said followers of Fethullah Gülen, an exiled Islamic preacher accused of plotting to depose Erdoğan, had started circulating it on social media to falsely undermine the president. But a closer look at the picture indeed indicates that it was taken during Turkish military action in Syria at the weekend.