Turkey criticises Kanye West’s Istanbul concert over rhetoric and symbols that offended the nation’s spiritual and cultural values.
ISTANBUL: Turkey on Tuesday expressed alarm over a weekend gig by Kanye West in Istanbul attended by nearly 120,000 fans, saying it included elements that offended its spiritual sensitivities.
The US rapper has had shows banned in several European venues over his antisemitic remarks, but Muslim-majority Turkey’s objections were focused elsewhere.
In a post on X, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chief advisor Oktay Saral said the show featured “rhetoric and symbols that run counter to our faith and civilisational values”.
“The fact that tens of thousands of people enthusiastically chanted ‘I am a God’ is a serious matter that demands close examination,” he said of Saturday night’s performance.
“I Am a God” is a Kanye West song from 2013.
The show was more than just “a mere music event”, Saral said, pointing to the involvement of 82-year-old French designer Michele Lamy, an eccentric with heavily kohled eyes, tattoos, gothic style and ink-stained fingers, suggesting she was “associated with occultism and dark symbols”.
Even more worrying was the involvement of a “conservative segment of society… (in) this cultural siege”, he said, urging the tourism ministry “to exercise far greater caution regarding such events that concern the spiritual and cultural sensitivities of our nation”.
The rapper has in recent years sparked widespread anger over remarks glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and for antisemitic rants, which he has blamed on having bipolar disorder.
Last year, he released a song called “Heil Hitler”, with swastika T-shirts advertised on his website, sparking a backlash that has affected his planned European tour this year.
In April, Britain banned him from entering the country to headline a festival, forcing organisers to cancel the event.
A week later, he postponed a concert in Marseille following reports France’s interior minister was seeking to block the performance.
A Polish stadium also cancelled a June 19 concert, with the culture minister saying Poland wanted to bar him over his “promotion of Nazism”.
And Italy banned a planned July 18 show by West on public safety grounds.
In January, West took out an advert in the Wall Street Journal to defend himself, saying: “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite” and “I love Jewish people”. He attributed his behaviour to a “manic episode” brought on by bipolar disorder.
He is scheduled to perform in the Netherlands on June 6 and 8, in the Albanian capital Tirana on July 11, and in Prague on July 25.