Tarkan Turns The Ignition On

Tarkan’s days in custody and the developments in the wake of his release have started some debates in Turkey.

Some criticize the police for giving Tarkan a special treatment; not handcuffing him while he was being taken into custody and when he was taken to the courthouse in Besiktas, Istanbul. They say that there are other celebrities, journalists or generals who have been taken into custody in recent years but have not received the treatment Tarkan had. However, many law professors agree that how Tarkan was treated when he was under detention is in compliance with Turkish laws. This, then, leads us to ask the following fundamental question: Who or what do we need to criticize?

The recent debates in the Turkish media are not only centered on the alleged special treatment Tarkan had when he was in custody as explained above. Tarkan’s lawyer’s denial of the recent claims about Tarkan’s alleged involvement in the latest drug scandal as covered by media appears to be igniting an ethical debate over the Turkish media itself. For example, according to Turkish daily Milliyet’s Ali Eyuboglu, who was interviewed in Can Dundar’s “Canlı Gaste” on NTV last Tuesday, Turkish media tend to supply information from “one news pool”, which may inevitably result in misinformation because there is no or very little verification as almost all the media use the same pool.  When Eyuboglu’s argument is considered valid and strong, then there is a big need for Turkish media to revisit how they access information and how this information gets printed in newspapers and gets covered on TV and turn into “news”.

There seems to be a mystery over the recent incident Tarkan has been involved in. We really look forward to the truth being revealed at the end of the trial and everyone should act responsibly in the meantime.