Barış Atay Released

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Actor Barış Atay, who was taken into custody by İstanbul Security Branch Office yesterday (May 16) on the ground of his social media posts, has been released. After his release from detention, Atay posted the following tweet:

"I thank to all friends and comrades. I have seen once again how important solidarity is. I am so glad that I have you... We will have so beautiful tomorrows all together."

What happened?

After the then Counselor of the Prime Minister, Yusuf Yerkel, who kicked the miner Erdal Kocabıyık during the protests after the occupational homicide in the Soma district of Manisa that claimed the lives of 301 miners, apologized to Kocabıyık on Twitter four years after the incident, Barış Atay posted a tweet in response to Yerkel and said:

"You will all apologize in tears. When the day comes, we will also not forget the ones who have forgiven, shown mercy or given up judgement! There is no such thing as 'retirement to the grandchildren, we are all brothers and sisters or we do not want to fight.' Everything starts now. You will pay for what you have done to this country."

As a response to this tweet, Hurriyet columnist Ahmet Hakan wrote about Atay in his column. Calling on to presidential candidates Muharrem İnce and Meral Akşener to "teach this man his lesson", Hakan wrote:

"This man represents a mindset! He [represents] anything that we wish to end...He's taken all these on his back and appeared before us! This man...is a representative of all chasing revenge, seeking fight, chaos and unrest!"

The article was released on May 15 and Atay was detained the day after.

In his message conveyed via his lawyer Efkan Bolaç, Atay said, "Ahmet Hakan's instruction has arrived at its destination".

Atay responded to Hakan's article with this article:

"Ahmet Hakan...everyone whom this government used as hitman against the people under any circumstances will apologize in shame, just like Yusuf Yerkel, yet he will still be tried! You are one of them."

After Barış Atay was taken into custody on May 16, Ahmet Hakan wrote again in his column on Hürriyet about Atay the day after and said:

"My call was not directed to the police or prosecutors, but to Muharrem İnce and Meral Akşener."

Stating that the detention of Atay has made him appear as a hitman, Hakan has made a call to the police and the prosecutor's office "not to intervene". (EKN/SD)