Updated 13.43 | Published 13.02
Ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, hundreds of arrests have taken place, among them journalists and upwards of 50 elderly environmentalists as well as a very popular comedian.
He is threatened with prison, accused of insulting religion and President Erdogan.
Stand up comedian Deniz Goktas32, was arrested late last week after a few hundred complaints against his show on Youtube. There he described the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan as someone who evolved from a “shy dictator” to a person “at home in his identity”, according to the AP.
Gökta’s show has around ten million views so far and on Friday people protested outside a court in Istanbul. He has defended himself by saying that what he does is satire.
But the arrest is just one of many recently. Erdogan has increased the pressure on the opposition ahead of the NATO summit. It has led to the arrests of opposition mayors, who are accused of corruption. Since March last year, Istanbul’s mayor has been sitting Ekrem ImamogluErdogan’s main challenger, imprisoned.
