Turkish actor threatened over his Gezi Park support

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Actor Mehmet Ali Alabora reads a statement about the threats he has received. DHA photo

Famous actor Memet Ali Alabora has said he is being threatened by unknown people over his support for the Gezi Park protests, after a Turkish daily showed him as one of the leading figures of “a plan to topple the Turkish Government.”

Daily Yeni Şafak claimed on June 10 that a theatre play called “Mi Minor,” allegedly supported by an agency in Britain, had held rehearsals of “revolution” in Turkey for months.

The newspaper accused Memet Ali Alabora of collaborating with “external spies” to start a revolution in Turkey.

Alabora, who is also director of the play, is a well-known activist in Turkey in favor of civil rights and the environment.

Yeni Şafak “proved” Alabora’s hidden intentions to topple the government and hold rehearsals by playing Mi Minor hundreds of times by citing his past interviews too.

“Pinima is a country led with a democracy where the president decides anything, and you enter Pinima as you enter the theater hall, the president regulates everything. This is the basic fiction of the play and you live it. But there is a pianist, a stray pianist, and the play starts by forbidding the musical note Mi. The pianist then starts singing to show reaction and show what’s happening in Pirima by calling on citizens to show it through social media. The audience chooses to watch it on social media or attend,” Alabora was quoted as saying by Yeni Şafak.

He said that when the trees were uprooted in Gezi Park he had sent a tweet inviting people to come to Taksim for support. He said he was being targeted for that tweet and the agency allegedly financing “his movement” was a public relations agency owned by Turks based in Britain. 

The play Mi Minor takes place in a non-existent country called Pinima. It has been described by critics as a thought-provoking, technologically cutting-edge play. The play fully integrates digital technology and social media, with digital and “physical” audiences and actors continuously interacting both inside the theatre and on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

The play is said to be inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions, which unseated well-rooted dictatorships.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned artists involved in the protests against the government on June 9, saying: “Shame on the artists who support this process.”