Press release of April 3, 2026
Arrest of Deniz Göktaş in Turkey: Satire Is Not a Crime
The writers’ association PEN Berlin is protesting the arrest of Turkish comedian Deniz Göktaş.
Last week, the 32-year-old comedian uploaded the finale of his show Ölü Deniz (a play on words meaning »Dead Sea« or »Dead Deniz«) to YouTube without ads. By Friday at noon, the video had been viewed nearly ten million times. Göktaş is a voice of his generation, and his jokes embody the essence of satire: aimed at everyone and everything, including himself and the Alevi-leftist milieu from which he hails. In this show, alongside numerous other figures from political and public life, Göktaş also takes aim at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Islam – not in a way that incites hatred, but in an intelligent manner. However, criticism of those in power, let alone mockery of them, is considered a crime under the Erdoğan regime.
Shortly after the video was released, politicians and propagandists from the AKP launched a campaign against Göktaş, with some openly threatening violence. The public prosecutor’s office promptly opened a preliminary investigation. The charges: »defamation of religious values« and »insulting the president«.
Deniz Göktaş must have known what to expect when he returned to Turkey on Thursday after vacationing abroad. He did it anyway, for which he deserves our respect.
The pretrial detention ordered today is not merely a miscarriage of justice by a misguided Istanbul court; it is also unlawful under current Turkish law. Given the Erdoğan regime’s total control over the Turkish judiciary, and considering the waves this case has made in Turkey over the past few days, one must assume that the president personally ordered the pretrial detention. »These judges and prosecutors are Erdoğan’s thugs in judges’ robes«, said PEN Berlin spokesperson Deniz Yücel.
Göktaş had poked fun in that show at Erdoğan’s transformation from a »prude dictator« to a »dictator at peace with himself«. Göktaş’s arrest sadly illustrates just how right he was: a dictator locks up people who call him a dictator.
Friedrich Merz in Ankara
In the coming days, Chancellor Friedrich Merz plans to travel to Ankara for the NATO summit. With this upcoming trip in mind, Yücel said: »U.S. President Donald Trump has stated that he will attend the summit in person solely for Erdoğan’s sake. We would very much welcome it if the chancellor were to forgo his personal attendance solely because of this prison sentence. On the other hand, we do not expect that to happen. Perhaps the chancellor, who has no objection to remarks directed at him in Germany – such as »Lying Fritz« or »Pinocchio« – being met with criminal prosecution, will take the opportunity to discuss with Trump and Erdoğan how to effectively suppress criticism and ridicule of those in power. Anyone who finds this idea far-fetched should ask themselves why a criminal offense known as »insulting a politician« (§188 of the German Criminal Code) was added to German law in 2021. This provision has since led to thousands of preliminary investigations and numerous obscure first-instance rulings.«
PEN Berlin. We stand by our word.