Boycott and resistance tear through Turkey’s cultural life

The spy sitcom Teşkilat (The Shadow Team) about Turkey’s feared intelligence agency has been making waves, but for events off-screen. State broadcaster TRT fired actor Aybüke Pusat who features in the series, after she issued a statement of support for an opposition-led economic boycott, connected to the recent anti-government protest movement.

“It is not acceptable for ­someone to act in TRT productions while also supporting a boycott that ­targets TRT itself with baseless accusations,” the channel said, adding that it would edit Pusat out of future episodes.

The real-world drama ­continued after the screenwriter behind a series about the 13th-century Persian poet and scholar Rumi criticised the decision to fire Pusat, prompting TRT to pull that series from their streaming platform.

Singer Gaye Su Akyol is taking her Anatolian rock sound across Turkey ahead of a tour of Europe and the UK.

Akyol’s ­rumbling vocals, ­intoning lyrics like “this is the sound of the coming rebellion” over psychedelic guitar licks, as she struts and swaggers across the stage fuse rock music with ­traditional Turkish sounds and a ­distinct ­flavour of local 70s pop: Akyol has said she draws inspiration from the Anatolian singer Selda Bağcan and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.

“I am who I want to be,” she sings on the song Rebel Manifesto, “let the world mind its own ­business”. Akyol will perform in the Netherlands before heading next month to the Moth Club in Hackney, London, the Wide Awake Festival in Brockwell Park and Old Woollen in Leeds before touring Germany.

Drag collective AblaGrillz have been lighting up clubs on the European side of Istanbul, after police pressure forced them out of their club residence. A night at a drag show has an air of defiance wherever it takes place in the world, but perhaps nowhere more so than Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made little secret of his dislike of the LGBT community.

This doesn’t stop AblaGrillz’ Florence K. Delight, Yourotika and Willie Ray, who take to the stage with a mix of ­comedy and lipsync, met by ­cheering crowds.