Turkish police on Wednesday detained four people wearing a T-shirt bearing the word “hero” in Eskişehir, Aydın and Elazığ provinces, one day after two university students were taken into custody in Erzurum for wearing similar T-shirts, the Evrensel daily has reported.
According to the report, G.A and M.B. were detained by the anti-terror police as they were trying to attend an event in hero T-shirts to mark the first anniversary of a failed coup attempt that took place in Turkey on July 15, 2016.
The two men, who were taken to a police station, allegedly aimed to create a provocation at the event.
M.Ö., who was wearing a hero T-shirt, was detained by police in the Efeler district on Wednesday. In his interrogation at police headquarters M.Ö said he was not aware of an ongoing debate over the T-shirt.
Another person wearing the same T-shirt was detained in the Aksaray neighborhood of Elazığ by police on Wednesday.
The hero T-shirts became an issue when Gökhan Güçlü, one of the suspects on trial for an assassination attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the night of the coup, was thrown out of the courtroom last Thursday for wearing a T-shirt bearing the word “hero” because it caused tension between the parties during the hearing.
Emirhan B., who was detained when he was attending a coup trial at Ankara’s Sincan Courthouse on Monday, was arrested by a court on Wednesday. Emirhan B. said he was not aware of the meaning of the word “hero” on the T-shirt that he bought from a shop.
On Tuesday two university students were detained for wearing hero T-shirts in Erzurum province’s Yakutiye district. In their testimonies, the students reportedly said they bought the T-shirts from a store in the city and that they had not heard anything about Güçlü.
According to the private İhlas news agency, the textile firm that manufactures the hero T-shirts stopped production after discussions with the police. The T-shirts were withdrawn from sale in stores and online, İhlas said.