Gülsen has been making music in Turkey for 25 years, she knows the limits of her world. Seven years ago, in the video for her song “Dan Dan”, she sat on a motel bed with red patent leather boots and a red body, made a phone call, then got into a large American convertible and picked up a man on the side of the highway. After the publication there were problems with the Turkish broadcasting supervisory authority RTÜK. She warned of Gülsen’s body movements in “Dan Dan” that they were a danger to children. Gülsen was outraged. She spoke of a serious attack on the dignity of women. And got away with it.
The power of the body is the most visible. Gülsen’s songs are emotional and erotic, superficially intimate, they have a pull. In her music videos, she dances in front of walls of flames and under waterfalls. She, who is currently the most successful pop artist in Turkey, whose songs are clicked a hundred million times on YouTube, has won awards and has toured Europe, determines what happens next. Recently “Lolipop” was released. It’s about a forbidden love, in the video Gülsen is locked in prison. She seduces a guard behind a glass wall and dances with two guards.
“I do not accept the accusation”
Gülsen was actually arrested last week. At a concert in April, she called out to her keyboard player, nicknamed Imam, that he went to a religious school and was therefore so perverted. As it turned out later, it was about who in the band should take them on their shoulders. A joke among confidants and an allusion to the abuse scandals in Koran schools. Many supporters of the ruling AKP party called for Gülsen’s arrest. The Imam Hatip schools are supposed to produce perverts? President Erdogan himself was on one and so were many other AKP politicians. The AKP people spoke and wrote of a “hate crime and a disgrace to humanity”. Gülsen admitted he made a “bad joke” and apologized to those who felt offended. But she also said: “I absolutely do not accept the allegation.”
Gülsen was released this week and placed under house arrest. “Incitement to hatred and enmity” is not a serious crime, but it’s not over yet. Your texts are apolitical, but Gülsen stands for what Erdogan is fighting. She has a black belt in karate. She performed on International Women’s Day, waved the rainbow flag at concerts and donated the proceeds from the sale of one of her albums to the We Will Stop Femicide platform, which documents how many women are killed by partners or relatives. In 2021, Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention on Violence Against Women. There are no official statistics, but the Turkish Women’s Association counted at least 300 dead women in 2020.
Gülsen reacted to every intimidation with more nudity. In “Bangir Bangir” she sings: “You woke up the snake that slept like a rose.” Pop music can alienate, aestheticize, can disguise itself. Until Erdogan threatened to rip out singer Sezen Aksu’s tongue over a song earlier this year, pop was spared the threats familiar to Turkish journalists and writers. Now, ahead of next spring’s election, intimidation of the anti-government cultural scene is increasing. But Gülsen has prominent supporters: well-known lawyers, the singer Tarkan, the writer Elif Shafak, the pianist Fazil Say, who years ago was accused of insulting Islam because he mocked bigotry on Twitter. At that time, more than a hundred German politicians signed an appeal to protest.