A Joke About Praising Crime and Criminals

Deniz Göktaş makes jokes for a living. Now he is behind bars for one, the article says, detained on accusations of insulting the president and openly inciting the public to hatred and hostility. Defense lawyers challenged the detention, but Göktaş was arrested again immediately after a release order. This time, the stated reason was “praising crime and criminals.”

The article presents Turkey as a knot of contradictions. It points to the imprisoned figure on İmralı, whom it describes as responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of citizens and sentenced to life for separatism and treason. Yet the government is negotiating with him, and a framework law was brought before parliament after receiving his information and approval, the article says. A leader of the governing coalition has even called him a “founding leader.” None of this, the writer argues, is treated as praising crime or criminals.

The same contrast appears in the article’s references to Şeyh Sait and İskilipli Atıf. Şeyh Sait led an uprising against the proclamation of the Republic, with foreign support according to the article, and was punished along with the rebels. Yet a statue was erected for him in Diyarbakır during the current government’s tenure, without anyone facing an investigation for praising crime or criminals.

İskilipli Atıf, described as a Teali Islam Society official tried and punished for collaborating with occupying forces during the National War of Independence, has also received official commemoration. The Çorum governor, the İskilip district governor, the AKP mayor of Çorum, AKP lawmakers and the rector of Çorum Hitit University attended a ceremony at his grave on the anniversary of his death. A criminal complaint was filed against public officials at the ceremony, but no investigation permission was granted. The article adds that the Çorum governor at the time later became interior minister.

The piece then turns to CHP politics. Özgür Özel told Halk TV that he hoped the Court of Cassation would rule against the CHP being run by unelected people, and said the party should quickly hold a proper congress and return control to elected figures. The writer asks whether Özel and his allies would still refuse to return to their former party. It argues that long-running efforts to detach the CHP from Atatürk and republican principles could now largely succeed in removing an independent Kemalist line from Turkish politics.

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