Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into Turkish singer Alpay after he at a concert commemorated a 13-year-old boy who was killed by the police during the Gezi Park protests of 2013, Gazete Duvar reported on Tuesday.
The 84-year-old singer is now reportedly under investigation for “denigrating the state” and “praising members of terrorist groups.”
During a concert he gave on March 22 on the occasion of the 50th year of his musical career, he dedicated one of his songs to Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan, activists of the 1968 student movement who were sentenced to death and hanged by the government in 1972, as well as to Berkin Elvan, a 13-year-old who was killed by a police bullet during the 2013 Gezi Park protests.
“What’s the terrorism in dedicating a song to people who were killed by Turkey’s governments?” Alpay told Gazete Duvar. “If defending the Gezi resistance is terrorism, then I am a terrorist.”