Turkish actress and television presenter Berna Laçin was released Thursday after being detained Wednesday over a social media post criticizing the mayor of İzmir for joining President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling party, in an investigation into allegations of inciting public hatred and hostility, the Kısa Dalga news website reported Thursday.
Police took Laçin into custody at her home in İstanbul’s Üsküdar district and searched the premises after the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into her under Article 216 of the Turkish Penal Code, which criminalizes incitement to hatred and hostility or public denigration.
The investigation followed a post on X in which Laçin reacted negatively to İzmir Mayor Cemil Tugay’s decision to join Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) after having left the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) several months earlier.
“İzmir has been occupied before. Don’t be afraid!” Laçin wrote, referring to the occupation of the western Turkish city by Greek forces from 1919 to 1922 during Turkey’s War of Independence.
Prosecutors launched the investigation shortly after the post was published. Laçin said a journalist had informed her of the investigation less than an hour after she shared the message, initially leading her to believe the report was false.
She questioned how her remarks could have prompted an investigation so quickly, asking what anyone could have read or done in that time to constitute incitement to hatred and hostility.
Later Wednesday Laçin announced that police had arrived at her home to detain her.
“They came to detain me and are searching my home. I don’t understand what’s happening,” she wrote on X.
The detention prompted criticism from opposition and ruling-party lawmakers.
Ali Mahir Başarır, a senior CHP lawmaker, questioned why police had searched Laçin’s home and detained her within hours of the social media post.
Özlem Zengin, deputy parliamentary group chair of the AKP, said she disagreed with Laçin’s comparison of the mayor’s political move to an occupation but did not believe the actress should have been detained over her remarks.
Tugay joined the AKP at a party meeting Wednesday, where Erdoğan personally presented him with a party badge. Tugay had resigned from the CHP in June and continued serving as an independent before joining the ruling party.
His move put the administration of İzmir, long considered a stronghold of Turkey’s secular opposition, under the AKP without the party winning a municipal election there. Tugay was elected mayor on the CHP ticket in the March 2024 local elections.
