The Turkish police arrested the pop singer Gulsen Bayraktar Colakoglu over a remark she made at a concert back in April. While on stage, Gulsen called a member of her band a pervert. Her remark was inflicting that he is a ‘pervert’ because he attended a religious school.
Ever since the controversial concert, Gulsen was targeted and put to constant criticism from the Turkish public. The reason behind the arrest, according to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is the alleged inciting people to ‘hatred and animosity’ with her comments.
Democracy Or A Communist State – Singer Gets Arrested In Turkey Following Joke About Religion
Most democratic countries around the world would not consider a comment like this an insult. However, seems like this cannot pass without sanctions in Turkey.
The singer insists that this is a pure ‘inside joke between colleagues’. However, the Turkish government claims that the joke offended a mass of religious Turkish people.
“A joke I made in the working environment was broadcast by people who aim to polarize society. I’m sorry that my words gave ill-intentioned people who want to polarize our country what they wanted.” – The Turkish singer wrote on an Instagram post, apologizing to all the people that feel offended by the remarks.
It is not like these are the first defaming comments made to the singer. Gulsen carries the hatred and criticism on her name since the beginning of her career. She rocks unusual stage costumes, makes controversial music videos, while publicly supporting the LGBTQ community. This is enough for conservative people to dislike her.
The numerous pro-government media fuel the criticism on the singer by circulating a video from the concert. Basically, the arrest happened after the video of her ‘joke’ became popular on social media and it created a massive split of opinions in the comments.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office started an investigation and decided to arrest the singer under the questionable ‘hatred and animosity’ justification.
Government critics are attacking this move as suppression and complete control of free speech. People compare this arrest to something that would happen in totalitarian communist countries.
The only one that benefits from the arrest is the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Ergodan. Critics see this as a try to strengthen his position amongst people with conservative views in the country.
“Targeting a segment of society with the allegation of “perversion” and trying to polarize Turkey is a hate crime. It is a disgrace to humanity.” – Governmental spokesperson Omer Celik tweeted in support of the arrest.
People from show biz in Turkey stand in Gulsen’s defense. Turkish pop star Tarkan is one of the loudest to oppose to the arrest.
“Our legal system turns a blind eye to corruption, thieves, and those who break the law and massacre nature. To those who kill animals, and use religion to polarize society through their bigoted ideas. But, they arrested Gulsen in one whack.” – Tarkan’s tweet reads.
