A leading Turkish entertainer has been taken from her home and thrown in jail for making an off-the-cuff joke about Turkey’s religious schools, the country’s state-run news agency reports.
The chart-topping singer and songwriter known as Gulsen, whose full name is Gulsen Colakoglu, was seized for questioning on Thursday in Istanbul and formally arrested before being taken to prison pending her trial.
The arrest sparked outrage on social media, with government critics branding the arrest an effort by the increasingly autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to consolidate religious and conservative support ahead of elections due in mid 2023.
The charges were based on a joke Gulsen made during a concert in Istanbul back in April, when she quipped that one of her musicians’ “perversion” stemmed from the fact that he went to a religious school.
A video of the singer making the comments began circulating on social media recently, with a hashtag endorsed by Islamic fundamentalists demanding her arrest.
‘Don’t betray the law’
Gulsen, who had already been the target of Islamic circles for her revealing stage outfits, apologised for causing offense but said her comments were seized on by those wanting to deepen polarization in the country.
During her court questioning, Gulsen rejected accusations that she incited hatred and enmity, telling court authorities she had “endless respect for the values and sensitivities of my country,” the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
A request that she be released from custody pending the outcome of a trial was rejected.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, called on judges and prosecutors to release Gulsen.
“Don’t betray the law and justice; release the artist now!” he wrote on Twitter.
The spokesman for Erdogan ruling party, Omer Celik, appeared however, to defend the decision to arrest the singer, saying “inciting hatred is not an art form.”
“Targeting a segment of society with the allegation of “perversion” and trying to polarize Turkey is a hate crime and a disgrace to humanity,” Celik tweeted.
Erdogan and many members of his Islam-based ruling party are graduates of religious schools, which were originally established to train imams.
The number of religious schools has increased under Erdogan, who has promised to raise a “pious generation”.
-AAP
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