Mosques Blaring 'Bella Ciao': Erdoğan Blames Opposition, Ex-CHP Politician Remanded

Banu Özdemir with CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (Photo: Banu Özdemir/Facebook)

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While those who infiltrated mosques' system in İzmir and played the "Bella Ciao" song have not yet been found, one member of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has been remanded in custody as the government continued to blame the CHP for the incident.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair, told reporters on Friday (May 22) that the CHP executives in the city were "overjoyed" on social media. "Their dream is to hear another voice from mosques instead of the adhan [call for prayer]," he asserted.

Later in the day, the CHP's former provincial deputy chair in İzmir, Banu Özdemir, was remanded in custody because of sharing videos of the incident on Twitter. She was detained a day before.

"The charge was changed to remand her in custody"

Her attorney Süleyman Karadağ said that the prosecutor's office changed the charge against Özdemir so that the court could remand her in custody, T24 reported. The investigation was opened for "degrading religious values" but then she was charged with "provoking people into hatred and animosity," which stipulates a prison term of up to three years, therefore enabling the penal court of peace to remand the defendant in custody, according to the attorney.

Barış Yarkadaş, a journalist and a former CHP MP, said in a tweet on Friday that he spoke with Özdemir and she told him that she shared the videos after seeing them on various websites.

"There is no insult, swear or humiliation in my posts. I am a religious person. I wouldn't do it anyway. But unfortunately, a group of trolls targeted me after my posts. Then they tried to take over my account. I dealt with that until the morning," she told Yarkadaş.

"In the morning, I was called from the security directorate and invited to give a statement. We went to the police with my lawyer Süleyman Karadağ and gave a statement. After we completed our statement, the police officers on duty said they would detain me. The prosecutor's office gave that order.

"I spent the night in custody. The police officers were kind. I had no problems. They were already aware of the absurdity of the situation."

The police reports also showed that she shared the videos two hours after they were published on other websites, Özdemir added. However, she said, the prosecutor requested her arrest without taking a further statement from her and the judge remanded her in custody.

What happened?

On Wednesday, mosques in several districts of İzmir blared the Turkish version of Bella Ciao, a protest Italian song. The Mufti's Office, the provincial religion authority, stated that its central system for the call for prayers was hacked.

After many people shared videos of the incident on social media, İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office stated that it opened an investigation into both those who hacked the mosques' system and those who shared videos and praised what was done. (EKN/VK)