A government crackdown on Turkey’s opposition following the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has ensnared members of the culture community, including Mahir Polat, head of the municipality’s cultural heritage department, and photographer Murat Germen. Mass protests have erupted across the country, with hundreds of thousands marching against what they see as rising authoritarianism under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Artists and cultural figures face censorship, detention, and prosecution for expressing political views, while independent institutions bear the risk of critical discourse.
This matters because it highlights the escalating pressure on Turkey’s visual art community amid a broader political clampdown, threatening freedom of expression and cultural production. The arrest of heritage officials and the targeting of artists signal that the ruling AKP government seeks to control cultural narratives, stifling dissent. The silence of major art institutions, attributed to commercial interests, leaves independent artists and small venues as the primary defenders of critical art, reshaping how art is made and seen in Turkey.