Turkish actor and director Müfit Can Saçıntı gave a police statement over a criminal complaint stemming from a joke he made about state-appointed trustees while portraying the folk figure Nasreddin Hoca at a festival in July, the gazete oksijen news website reported Monday.
Saçıntı later published the statement on social media, saying it was the first time in his 36-year career in comedy that a joke had led to a criminal complaint requiring him to give a statement.
The complaint concerns remarks Saçıntı made while portraying Nasreddin Hoca at the 67th International Akşehir Nasreddin Hoca Festival in the central Turkish province of Konya.
Nasreddin Hoca is a celebrated figure in Turkish folklore whose humorous stories often use absurd situations to make social observations.
“I was appointed as trustee to Nasreddin Hoca’s donkey,” Saçıntı told the audience during the festival. He followed the remark with another joke comparing the appointment of a trustee to someone unexpectedly finding that their spouse had been replaced by a stranger.
The joke referred to Turkey’s practice of replacing elected mayors with state-appointed trustees. A September 2016 decree issued during the state of emergency declared after the July 15 coup attempt gave the government power to appoint trustees to replace elected mayors removed from office in terrorism-related cases.
Turkish authorities have used the trustee system particularly in municipalities won by pro-Kurdish parties and, in some cases, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), generally citing terrorism-related investigations or convictions. More than 150 mayors have been removed from office and replaced by government-appointed trustees since 2016 coup attempt, mainly on ‘terrorism charges.’
Saçıntı said in his police statement that he did not know the person who filed the complaint and had not spoken to or encountered the person at the festival. He said he had read in local media that the complainant accused him of offending the targets of his joke.
“The addressee in this sentence is the donkey,” Saçıntı said, adding another joke about whether the complainant, whom he said was a lawyer, had become the donkey’s “moral and metaphorical attorney.”
Saçıntı said he would not make a legal defense of the joke, leaving any legal assessment to prosecutors and, if a case is filed, a court. The precise offense cited in the complaint has not been publicly disclosed.
Mehmet Baykan, a lawmaker from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) representing Konya, walked out of the festival after Saçıntı’s remarks and later criticized the use of political commentary during the event. Saçıntı has said Baykan was not the person who filed the criminal complaint.
Saçıntı had initially gone to İstanbul’s Kadıköy Rıhtım Police Station after being summoned but was unable to give his statement because the officer handling the procedure was away, according to his account. He later returned and gave the statement, which he made public on September 21.
