A well-known talent manager was arrested on Monday on charges of attempting to overthrow the government in an investigation connected to nationwide riots in 2013.
Ayşe Barım was initially detained on Friday, and eight actors were summoned to testify as witnesses in her file.
According to the statement to the prosecutor, Barım denied the charges and said she had been to the area of the 2013 riots a few times individually as an observer and to accompany the people she worked with.
Barım said she did not coordinate with the actors she was working with or request them to support the riots, the court document showed.
“My job as a manager is to manage the career of the actors I work with and represent them in the best possible way. These artists have their own ideas, wills and decisions. I did not organize anything by directing their ideas,” Barım said, according to a transcript of her statement.
She insisted she had been the victim of an “organized attack on social media,” dismissing several reports that she threatened her actors with “tapes” kept at her home or that she would “do whatever I have done at Gezi much better now” as slander.
On May 31, 2013, Turkish police intervened in what began as a peaceful protest against the redevelopment of the titular park adjacent to Taksim Square at the heart of Istanbul. What followed were nationwide riots that led to the torching of cars, public property and injuries in a matter of a few days.
According to the court, Barım had “intensive communication” with defendants in the Gezi Park trial at the time of the riots. These defendants include businessman Osman Kavala, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in April 2022.
Investigators also said Mehmet Ali Alabora, a popular actor who fled Türkiye after the Gezi Park riots were intervened by police, was in contact with others to organize a joint declaration by celebrities in support of riots.
They said Barım was in contact with Alabora, as well as Utku Mater, a film producer and a defendant in the trials over the 2013 riots.
Barım claimed she met with Alabora because he was the president of the Actors Union at the time and was in close contact with the actors. She said her acquaintance with Kavala was about using a building for a movie premiere.
The 2013 riots were the work of terrorist groups the PKK and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), along with fringe factions linked to them. Portrayed as Arab Spring-style riots in the Western media, protesters garnered support even among moderate critics of the government despite their utter violence.
The fate of Gezi Park, where officials had plans to rebuild an Ottoman-era building, which was thwarted when red tape caused delays in redevelopment plans, is still in limbo. However, for rioters, the protests were a show of force for terrorist groups.
Authorities separately said two high-profile actors of Barım, including Halit Ergenç, known for his portrayal of Suleiman The Magnificient in the popular TV series “Magnificient Century,” were being investigated for perjury.
Ergenç and Rıza Kocaoğlu are being probed after claiming in their statements they had not been in contact with Alabora despite footage of them together at the riots.
Barım was already under investigation over her firm ID Consulting on charges of monopolizing the sector, blacklisting certain actors and actresses she fell with from the TV sector. Some TV actors had claimed on social media that Barım and a few other talent agencies ran a cartel in the sector that expanded into streaming platforms in recent years, loaning only certain figures to TV shows and films while marginalizing others opposing their demands.
Investigators said the probe would be expanded to include the testimonies of Barım’s other clients who were yet to be consulted.