A few seconds of humor that could be very expensive. Turkish pop star Gülsen, behind bars since Thursday for mocking religious schools on stage, was placed under house arrest on Monday pending trial, his lawyer said. She faces several years in prison.
The 46-year-old singer, whose real name is Gülsen Bayraktar Colakoglu, was released on Monday afternoon from the Istanbul prison of Bakirkoy. “We welcome his release. Although the comments she made may be disturbing, it is obvious that they do not constitute a crime, ”said his lawyer Emek Emre to the press, judging his house arrest contrary to the law.
At a concert in April, Gülsen said the “perversion” of one of his musicians was due to his upbringing at an Imam Hatip school, prompting a burst of laughter from the audience. These religious secondary schools, of which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a student, have flourished since the coming to power in 2002 of his Islamo-conservative AKP party. An excerpt from the scene went viral on social media last week, sparking outrage among ruling party executives, less than a year from the next presidential election. The singer was arrested on Thursday, provoking strong reactions in Turkey.
“Insult to sacred values”
“Those who insult the sacred values of our nation will not be able to escape their responsibility,” President Erdogan said during a speech on Monday evening, in reference to the lawsuits against the pop star. “For years they have tried to exclude my people,” he added, in an allusion to the decades of unchallenged rule of Westernized secular elites over Turkey.
Famous for her outfits considered daring by some of the Turks and for her support for the rights of the LGBTQ + community, Gülsen is a known artist in Turkey, an almost exclusively Muslim but constitutionally secular country.
Other Turkish artists have found themselves in the sights of the curators in recent months. Some have had their concerts canceled due to behavior deemed “inappropriate” or because they sing in a regional language. Last April, the Turkish patron and opponent Osman Kavala, detained for four and a half years, was sentenced to life imprisonment.