Ayşe Barım, founder and partner of a renowned talent management agency, is in hot water again after her company faced monopolization charges in the sector. Barım was detained on Friday over allegations that she was one of the planners of the notorious Gezi Park riots in 2013, where terrorist groups joined angry demonstrators in Istanbul in a bid to oust the government.
Barım is charged with an attempt to overthrow the government. Media outlets reported on Sunday that the investigation into her role in the riots will be expanded and investigators would probe her connections during the riots and today. The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office had launched the investigation after media reports claimed Barım was linked to the riots. The investigation found that Barım orchestrated the participation of actors and actresses whose careers she supervised in the riots and utilized their social influence to draw more people to the riots.
More actors and actresses are expected to be summoned to testify in the investigation after Arım’s detention. Earlier, celebrities including Halit Ergenç, Bergüzar Korel, Mehmet Günsür, Ceyda Düvenci, Nejat Işler, Rıza Kocaoğlu and Nehir Erdoğan testified as witnesses in the case. Some among them, including Halit Ergenç, known for his portrayal of Suleiman The Magnificient in the popular TV series “Magnificient Century,” were at the forefront of protests against the reconstruction of an Ottoman-era barracks in Istanbul’s Gezi Park.
Investigators say 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 say Barım was in contact with Alabora, as well as businessperson Osman Kavala and Çiğdem Utku Mater, a film producer and a defendant in the trials over the 2013 riots. She is accused of directing actors and actresses she served as a talent agent to join the protests and herself joined it at one point with celebrities.
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.
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. The 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 re-build 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.