Turkish prosecutors have indicted two famous actors on charges of false testimony in connection to an investigation into a celebrity manager due to her alleged involvement in the anti-government Gezi Park protests of 2013, Turkish Minute reported.
Actors Halit Ergenç and Rıza Kocaoğlu face prison sentences of up to four years on accusations that they provided false testimony to prosecutors as part of an investigation into celebrity manager Ayşe Barım.
Barım, a prominent figure in Turkey’s television and film industry who works with many famous actors and the founder of ID Communications, was arrested in January. She is accused of “attempting to overthrow the Turkish Republic or prevent it from fulfilling its duties” as one of the alleged “organizers” of the protests, which posed a serious challenge to then-prime minister and current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Ergenç and Kocaoğlu were among the several well-known actors summoned by prosecutors in January as part of the investigation into Barım due to their connections to her.
According to the indictment drafted by the the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Ergenç and Kocaoğlu both provided false testimony while being questioned as witnesses in the ongoing investigation into Barım’s involvement in the protests.
Barım is accused of encouraging the celebrities who worked with her company to visit Gezi Park during the protests and speak out for the protestors.
However, Ergenç, star of the world-famous Turkish series “The Magnificent Century, said in his testimony to prosecutors in January that Barım never encouraged him to participate in the Gezi Park protests.
Kocaoğlu said, as celebrities represented by ID Communications, their appearance at Gezi Park was voluntary and was not organized by anyone.
The Gezi Park protests, which began in the summer of 2013, sparked by an urban development plan for Gezi Park in central İstanbul, later spread to other cities in Turkey. The protests were violently suppressed by the government, with Erdoğan calling them a “coup” attempt against his government.
The indictment, which calls for a prison sentence of two to four years for the actors, has been submitted to İstanbul’s 24th Criminal Court of First Instance for review.
The investigation into Barım came more than a decade after the Gezi Park protests, during which thousands of people took to the streets to oppose the government of Erdoğan. Judicial authorities have repeatedly revisited the demonstrations in legal proceedings, targeting activists, opposition figures and businesspeople.
Observers see Barım’s arrest as part of a broader effort by Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to control Turkey’s cultural landscape. The government has frequently clashed with artists, writers and filmmakers over content critical of its policies, with Erdoğan previously expressing frustration that his party has not achieved dominance in Turkey’s cultural sphere despite more than two decades in power.
The arrest sparked a backlash from the entertainment industry, with actors and public figures voicing support for Barım and denouncing what they describe as an attack on artistic freedom.
