A foreign tourist was on Thursday facing a criminal probe for offending "the nation's moral values" for performing a pole dance on a Turkish flagpole in the tourist hotspot of Cappadocia, the governor's office said.

Prosecutors opened the probe after footage emerged on social media of a young woman in blue leggings and a white t-shirt performing several gravity-defying manoeuvres on a flagpole on a hilltop in Uchisar.

But the 12-second performance drew the wrath of the authorities with the governor's office of Nevsehir province filing a criminal complaint against the unidentified woman, without giving her name, nationality nor age, prompting an investigation by the area's chief public prosecutor.

"Regarding the inappropriate behaviour of a foreign national at a Turkish flagpole in our c

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