Prosecutor Denies Transsexual Singer Right of Free Speech

Ten people filed criminal complaints aganist singer Bülent Ersoy last year, after she had expressed her opposition to the ground attacks in Northern Iraq. Bakirköy Public Prosecutor Ali Çakır in Istanbul had demanded punishment, saying that Ersoy’s words had also been broadcast on the pro-Kurdish Roj TV channel. He demanded three years imprisonment and a trial was opened. Ersoy was charged with turning the public against military service.

Hundreds dead in operations

Around a year ago, on 22 February, Turkish Armed Forces sent ground forces into Northern Iraq in ordre to attack the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Dozens of soldiers and hundreds of PKK militants are said to have died.

Turkey was watching the funerals of the “martyrs” on the evening news. Young men masked their fears as they sent off their friends to military service with shouted slogans of heroism and nationalism, one of them being, “Martyrs don’t die, the country can’t be separated.”

Of all the political parties, only the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) opposed operations. To say that numerous cross-border operations in the past have not put an end to the PKK or to suggest that the country should mourn the deaths of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish militants as a sign of failed policies is equivalent to treachery in the eyes of many.

It took a judge from a national popstar competition, “Popstar Alaturka”,  to say what many people may have thought secretely.

Bülent Ersoy, a colourful transsexual singer, temporarily banned from performing on stage after the military coup in the 1980s, and now mostly in the magazine headlines for her outfits, young husbands and cosmetic surgery, expressed her opposition to the cross-border operations in Northern Iraq on live TV on 24 February.

"I am not a mother but I am a human being..."

What was it she said on live TV?

“If I had given birth to a child and someone sitting at a desk had said ‘You will do this, he will do that’, and I would have buried my child, would I accept that?”

This was greeted with applause from the studio audience. Ersoy continued:

“I cannot know exactly what it means to have a child. I am not a mother and will never be able to be one. But I am a human being; and as a human being, to bury them…I may not know how these mother’s hearts are breaking, but mothers understand.”

She continued, “This is not a war under normal conditions. It is written down and people are forced to play along. There is intrigue, and that is hard to cope with.”

Nationalist clichés

Another jury member, singer Ebru Gündeş, answered in a well-worn nationalist phrase, “Let Allah grant everyone the happiness of being a soldier's mother. May I have a glorious son and send him to the military,” to which Ersoy replied, “...and then you get his dead body back.”

Gündes answered, “Martyrs don’t die, the country can’t be separated,” to which Ersoy said:

“Always the same clichéd words, we always say the same. Children go, bloody tears, funerals…I don’t share your opinion. Why do we take part in the game? Alright, the country can’t be separated, but…Should all mothers just give birth and bury their children, is that it?”

In his indictment, prosecutor Çakır had used another clichéd nationalist phrase, “All Turks are born as soldiers.

Prosecutor appealed against acquittal

On 18 December 2008, singer Ersoy was acquitted of charges. However, the determined prosecutor has filed an appeal.

Ersoy’s lawyer Muhiddin Yüzüak said that such an appeal was standard procedure and announced that he and his client had agreed that she should not comment on the case.

"If you cannot give birth,you had better shut up!"

However normal such an appeal may be, one part of it is striking in its attempt to accuse the singer based on her transsexuality:

“It would be naive to evaluate as goodwill and freedom of expression the words uttered by a person who is medically unable to bear children and who is thus arguably provoking Turkish mothers.”

So, the Chiefs of General Staff, who will never give birth, are allowed to send dozens of children to war fronts, risking their deaths. A prosecutor who will never give birth, is allowed to count everyone as soldier and promote such a mentality. But when singer Ersoy, who will never give birth, says “If I had a child, I would not send him to his death”, this counts as provocation!

Thus a prosecutor is trying to limit the freedom of expression of a transsexual on the grounds that she cannot give birth…(EZÖ/AG)