DW: Censorship in Turkey – “Muzzle” and in pop culture, Gulsen risks prison

She just wanted to make a joke, says Gülsen, one of the favorite singers of Turkish youth. He never imagined that he would be jailed for “incitement to hatred and obscenity” for a comment, even a rude one. But what exactly did the artist in question say? During a concert last April, Gulsen was telling jokes about the musicians accompanying her on stage. For one of them, she said that his “perversion” was probably due to his previous studies at the Imam Hatip religious school, reports in an article in DW.

The issue is particularly sensitive to make jokes in today’s Turkey, when in fact the president Tayyip Erdoğan has studied at this particular religious school. The singer was arrested and from Friday she is called to account in a Turkish court. At 46 years old, Gülsen, who is famous for her fancy and daring appearances, has anyway sat in the stomach of many religious and pro-government actors.

For the LGBT community

Her position is probably burdened by her willingness to openly support gay men, lesbians, all members of the LGBTI community in today’s Turkey. Not only does President Erdogan take a different view, but he recently stated that the LGBTI community is “degenerating family values” and therefore its influence should be curtailed.

Pop singer Alena Tilki also recently expressed solidarity with LGBTI people, after a demonstration in Istanbul, during which demonstrators protested about the “dangers” homosexuals pose to children and society in general. Through Twitter, the 22-year-old artist criticized the homophobic reactions. A little later she saw a concert of hers canceled on the grounds that what she was saying was “not in line with our culture” and “provoked the feelings” of a large part of the Turkish people.

It was not the only case. A strict “cancel culture” has now taken hold in Turkey. In June, a concert by pop singer Melek Moso at the Isparta festival was canceled after ultra-conservative youth groups expressed the opinion that Moso, who often expresses feminist views, was promoting “immoral behaviour”.

Concert cancellations… for security reasons

In September the band Zakkum was informed that it could not perform its planned concert in the Anatolian city of Sanliurfa, because representatives of religious associations felt that the band’s name had dark connotations. Zakkum means oleander or oleander. It is about the well-known plant, which, however, fanatical religious circles believe refers to hell and has no place in a city like Sanliurfa, which is traditionally associated with Muhammad. Mass protests followed and eventually the local authorities relented and the concert went ahead, albeit with a delay.

Concerts or even entire festivals are canceled on the pretext of “security reasons”. “We know that some religious groups are mobilizing and appealing to the authorities to ban artistic events,” says the president of the Turkish association of professional musicians Mesam, Recep Ergül. He believes that many local rulers are bowing to pressure from religious groups, whose influence is growing rapidly. In fact, according to Cumhuriyet newspaper, representatives of religious organizations had met, in August, with the Ministers of Interior and Justice, Suleiman Soylu and Bekir Bozdag.

The so-called “Generation Z” in the spotlight

Ergül believes that the bans will continue and intensify as parliamentary and presidential elections are held in Turkey in 2023. An important role for the outcome of the election will be the so-called “Generation Z”, the young people born from the beginning of the 80s and after, who are voting for the first time and presumably are not enthusiastic about Erdogan.

If the goal of Turkey’s pop culture censorship is to punish young voters, that is probably not going to be achieved, says Recep Ergül, speaking to the German News Agency (dpa): “These bans usually backfire. What happened with Melek Moso or Gulsen probably increased and did not reduce their popularity. In fact it was probably a successful public relations campaign in their favor…”

DW

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