Published on
03/07/2026 - 4:55 GMT+2
"I think it's the best of the four books; for one thing, it's a bold statement in the 600s. It's also very difficult for the author; if a new idea comes to mind, too bad, we've said, 'This is the last book...'"
This was the joke that got a popular Turkish comedian, Deniz Goktas, arrested on arrival at Istanbul airport on Thursday for allegedly insulting Islam and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It is not yet clear which part of his 90-minute stand-up performance, published on YouTube, constitutes an insult to the president of the republic, which is a criminal offence under Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code. However, he openly called him a "dictator" who is finally "openly at peace with his desires".
