Habibe Eren/JINHA

ANKARA – Artists who react to the closure of channels, radio stations and theatres and detentions and arrests within scope of Statutory Decrees issued in State of Emergency. “They use state of emergency as they want, the situation becomes uncontrollable,” said artists.

Many academics and government employees have dismissed from their duty and many channels and radio stations have been shut down with scope of Statutory Decrees issued in State of Emergency. Among the 12 shuttered channels are channels air in Kurdish languages and Zarok TV, which airs Kurdish-language children’s cartoons. Meanwhile, many theater halls affiliated to municipalities in many cities have been sealed. Six theatre players and directors, who work in İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, have been suspended from their duty and 17 theatre players, a dramaturgist, a musician and a choreographer have been dismissed. Many plays have been banned within scope of State of Emergency. The artists react to the oppression imposed.

Actress and singer Deniz Türkali stated that there wasn’t any word to say; “There isn’t any word to say. We are facing a weird situation every minute. This situation isn’t dramatic anymore.” Deniz said all powers saw art and actress and artists as a threat and continued her talk as follows: “They are absolutely right. We are “threat” for them, because are threat to oppression and the attitudes of the power. They are absolutely right to be scared of that. The ruling powers are temporary; however, the art, actress /artists and science are permanent.”

Actress Lale Mansur showed her response by saying, “They use state of emergency as they want”. She reminded that the power constantly shows the example of state of emergency declared in France while talking about the state of emergency in Turkey and she said, “There isn’t something like that in France. They don’t shut down the theater halls and they don’t appoint trustees to neither municipalities nor workplaces. The state of emergency in Turkey is used as they want. This problem cannot be solved by imposing oppression; it can be solved by talking. There isn’t any other way. We are at a point in which words fail. We cannot find a word to say.”

Actress Nur Sürer reacted to the ongoing situation and asked, “Should we see this situation as normal?” She said, “One of my favorite authors was taken into custody in the morning. He is a normal literature teacher and he has been suspended from his duty. He has won several important awards in Turkey. The situation gets out of hand. No one can say something except the power in Turkey.”

(gc/gd)