Deniz Goktas arrested over stand-up shows that allegedly insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and mocked Muslim values.
Hamdi Firat Buyuk
A court in Istanbul ordered the arrest of Turkish comedian Deniz Goktas on Friday for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the religious values of the nation.
Goktas had been detained on Thursday at Istanbul Airport while returning from abroad.
The comedian has denied the accusations. “I absolutely did not intend to ‘publicly insult the religious values embraced by a particular segment of the population’, as alleged against me. This performance is part of a series of shows I have been doing in various cities across Turkey for approximately three years,” Goktas said, Bia.net reported.
In his show, entitled “The Dead Sea”, which is also available on YouTube, Goktas joked about the holy books of the three Abrahamic faiths of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
“I think the Koran is the best of the books; for one thing, it’s a bold statement in the 600s. It’s also very difficult for the author; if a new idea comes to mind, too bad, we’ve said: ‘This is the last book’,” Goktas said.
Goktas was targeted by conservative and Islamist circles on social media. Istanbul’s Prosecutors Office received 185 formal complaints about his stand-up show, which led to an investigation against him.
It is not clear how Goktas insulted President Erdogan in his show. However, on social media, he previously called Erdogan “a dictator”. He was asked abut this in court.
“I deny committing the crime of insulting the President. I had no intention whatsoever of demeaning the President. The word ‘dictator’ is a political term, and a topic frequently discussed publicly,” Goktas said.
The 32-year-old was born in Ankara and started his career as a comedian in 2019.
He has become popular with his jokes about politics, society and culture and has staged shows in Turkey, Europe and the US, which have been watched millions of times on YouTube.
His arrest comes as the government increases a crackdown on opposition parties, journalists, academics, civil society singers and artists.
Ahead of NATO’s Ankara summit on July 7-8, more than 200 people, including artists, environmental activists and academics, were arrested for being member of terrorist organisations.
