Band slams Biletix on ticket ‘embargo’ claims

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Grup Yorum is known for its leftist political tendencies. The band’s concert tickets have been sold through Turkey’s biggest online ticket company Biletix since 2001. Hürriyet photo

Turkey’s biggest online ticket company Biletix has allegedly stopped selling tickets for Grup Yorum concerts.

According to media reports of yesterday, the band’s concert promoter Ali Şenol said the customer care representative from the ticket company had told them the company would not sell the band’s tickets because they provided funds for terrorism.

Grup Yorum is known for its leftist political tendencies. Recently six people in the southeastern province of Malatya were sentenced for campaigning for a terrorist group after being arrested while selling tickets for a Grup Yorum concert. 

The band’s concert tickets have been sold through the Biletix network since 2001. The band applied to the company Feb. 9 to sell tickets for an upcoming concert in the western province of Bursa. 

Biletix released a press statement denying the band’s claims. The press statement said due to a legal verdict against the sales of the band’s concert tickets, the company wanted to check any legal impediment before launching the tickets for the band’s upcoming show. “We will decide whether or not to sell the tickets after we thoroughly learn about the legal obligations,” the press statement read.
Media reports also quoted Şenol as saying the representative had told him the company was sent a police order to not sell the band’s concert tickets. 

Daily News contacted Biletix representatives yesterday about the claim, and the representatives denied this claim as well. “We have not been told to stop the sales of any event, because we are not currently selling tickets for such an event,” the representatives said.