Pro-government media politicians and President Tayyip Erdoğan targeted singer Sezen Aksu, because of a song in which she says, “Say hello to the ignorant Eve and Adam.” A criminal complaint has been filed against her for “degrading religious values.” In response to the president’s threats during a speech at a mosque, Aksu released the lyrics of a new song where she says, “You can’t cut off my tongue.”
Sezen Aksu is a Turkish pop music singer, songwriter and producer who has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her nicknames include the “Queen of Turkish Pop” and “Minik Serçe / The Small Sparrow.”
She has been the subject of a political polemic with a song titled “Living is something so wonderful” which she composed and released 5 years ago. A small political group started a protest campaign on the Internet, blaming her with insulting Adam and Eve.
The lyrics says, “We followed the sign and taken a path, But it’s leading us to an apocalypse, Greetings to ignorant Adam and Eve. The protestors take the word “ignorant” as an insult.
A criminal complaint has been filed against Sezen Aksu for “degrading religious values.”
Politicians, as well as pro-government NGOs and media outlets also targeted Aksu. Several pro-government news outlets, including Yeni Şafak and Yeni Akit, reported the events as “Sezen Aksu insulted religious values.”
Turkey’s media watchdog, the Radio Television Supreme Council (RTUK) warned television channels on January 21, not to broadcast Aksu’s infamous song. The warning also concerned all types of music sensitive to national and moral values.
The official “Directorate of Religious Affairs” and Mr. Bahceli the chairman of the “National Movement Party”, the small partner of ruling “Republican Alliance” joined them. The latest and most terrifying contribution came from the State President Erdogan on January 21, Friday. Following the traditional Friday Prayer at Camlica mosque, Istanbul, he took the microphone and said: “When the time comes, it is our duty to crush the tongues of who defame our prophets Adam and Eve.” The president, who has a habit of speaking to reporters after Friday prayers, chose to give a speech inside the mosque this time.
Sezen Aksu responded to Erdoğan’s threat with new song
Having remained silent until then, Aksu made a statement on her Facebook account on January 22nd. She thanked those who announced support for her and said, “As you know, the matter is not me, the matter is the country.”
Aksu also shared the lyrics of a new song, which she said she wrote the day before. “You can’t crush my tongue,” she says in the song, apparently in response to Erdoğan’s threats. In a short time, people on social media translated the lyrics into more than 30 languages.
Lyrics of the song which Aksu named “The Hunter” (Avcı):
You can not distress me,
Much distressed I already am,
Wherever I look, pain I see,
You the hunter, I the prey
Just you hit and see.
Feel me you can not,
Crush my tongue you can not,
I see pain wherever I look,
Who the traveler, who the inkeeper,
Just you wait and see.
You can not kill me,
I have my voice, my music, my work,
And when I say “I”, I mean all.
(translated by Jale and Taha Parla)
In the meantime, some two hundred artists, singers, and writers signed a joint statement in support of Aksu: “We do not want a country where Aksu’s freedom of expression is restricted and she is threatened with ‘her tongue being ripped off’. We declare that we are together and in solidarity against this attack.”
Background
Erdogan governs since 2002, first as the Prime Minister, then the State President after 2014. The failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 gave him the chance to rule the country with “Statutory Decrees” and eliminate most of the opposition who had no connection with the coup attempt. In the last few years, the high inflation make people poor from day to day and the public surveys show that his votes are melting. This makes him more and more nervous and he provokes all sorts of polarization to keep his supporters by his side, declaring that it is “a matter of existence.”
Erdogan cannot bear even the smallest critics and forces prosecutors to investigate people using article 299 of The Penal Code (Insulting the State President). Over 36.000 investigations are opened yearly and one third of them turn to court cases. Those who were subjected to investigations are usually taken into custody by midnight raids to their residents and most of them are arrested. Even today (January 22, 2022) journalist Ms. Sedef Kabaş was arrested due to the words she spoke during a TV discussion.
Although, an ‘insult’ can never be a subject of an arrest according the legislation, the Turkish judiciary does not feel necessary to obey the decisions of the Constitutional Court as well as the clear decisions of ECHR.
Commenting on these cultural tensions journalist Dr. Kenan Sharpe said, “These moments of rage feel like an attempt to find an eternal enemy of some kind,” in an interview with online news platform Medyascope TV.
Erdoğan steps back
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has claimed that he was not referring to the legendary singer Sezen Aksu when he last week threatened to “cut the tongues” of those who defame Adam and Eve. Erdoğan also touched upon the recent arrest of journalist Sedef Kabaş, vowing that “whatever the law requires will be done” after she was jailed on a charge of “insulting the president.”
Social media users pointed out Erdoğan took a step back from his previous words as it is still a matter of curiosity whom the president was referring to with his threatening remarks.