A Bursa man identified only by the initials Ö.G. was briefly detained on Friday upon a complaint that he was wearing a “hero” T-shirt.
Bursa police detained Ö.G. following a false tipoff that reported him to police as wearing a hero T-shirt. Police stopped Ö.G. near Bursa’s touristic Koza Han and interrogated him. He was released when they discovered that his T-shirt only bore the word “heart.”
Meanwhile, Mustafa Kaya, the district director of national education in İzmir’s Seferihisar was taken into custody over his picture taken near a ‘hero’ graffiti on Friday. Kaya was accused of having links to the Gülen movement.
According to Doğan news agency, Kaya, who has been Seferihisar’s national education director since 2014, was detained due to his picture with a ‘hero’ graffiti drawn on a rock. Kaya reportedly posted this picture on his social media account on May 1.
Any material bearing the word “hero” has become suspicious following a series of detentions across Turkey of people wearing T-shirts bearing the word the controversial word. 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 a coup attempt last year, was thrown out of the courtroom on July 13 for wearing a similar T-shirt. At least 41 people have been detained for wearing hero T-shirts since summer.
Meanwhile, Turkish Airlines (THY) stopped distribution of its “Heroes” kits to children on board its planes during overseas flights. (SCF with turkeypurge.com)