The 46-year-old singer-songwriter, whose full name is Gulsen Kolakoglou, was taken away for questioning from her home in Istanbul and formally arrested late Thursday before being taken to prison to await trial.
The arrest sparked outrage on social media. Critics of the government said the move was an attempt by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to consolidate his religious and conservative base of support ahead of elections in 10 months.
The charges were based on a joke Gulsen made during a concert in Istanbul in April, when she quipped that one of her musicians’ “perversion” came from the fact that he went to a religious school. A video of the singer making the comments recently began circulating on social media, with a hashtag calling for her arrest.
Gulsen – who had already been targeted in Islamic circles for her revealing clothes – apologized for the offense but said her comments were exploited by those who want to deepen polarization in the country.
During her interrogation, Gulsen rejected accusations of inciting hatred and enmity, telling judicial authorities she had “endless respect for the values and sensitivities of my country,” state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
A request to release him from prison pending the outcome of the trial was rejected.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, called on Turkey’s judges and prosecutors to release Gulsen.
“Do not betray the law and justice. release the artist now!” he wrote on Twitter.
Erdogan’s ruling party spokesman Omer Celik, however, appeared to defend the decision to arrest the singer, saying “inciting hatred is not an art form”.
“Targeting a segment of society with the claim of ‘perversion’ and trying to polarize Turkey is a hate crime and a shame for humanity,” Celik wrote on Twitter.
Erdogan and many members of his Islam-based ruling party are graduates of religious schools, which were originally established to train imams. The number of religious schools has increased under Erdogan, who has promised to raise a “pious generation”.
