Turkish politician calls out on "cultural degeneration and detachment from values" after Kanye West concert
Kanye West performed for the first time since 2014 in Europe on Saturday, at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, in front of a reported audience of 118,000 people, which West said it was the "largest stadium performance of all-time", but the performance drew criticism from Turkish government, with Oktay Saral, chief advisor for President Erdogan, posting on Tuesday that "tens of thousands of people enthusiastically chanting 'I am a God' is a serious matter that demands close examination", referring to a song from 2013."118,000 young people have been turned into participants in a show featuring rhetoric and symbols that contradict our faith and civilizational values, all by paying for it", and called the Ministry of Culture and Tourism "to exercise far greater caution in events of this nature, which touch on the spiritual and cultural sensitivities of our nation. The children of this nation must hold fast to their own civilizational values, not the dictates of the global culture industry." In a follow up post on Wednesday afternoon, after his original post was added context by users on X claiming "people buy their own tickets so it's not indoctrination", Saral insisted that "they are either too shallow to understand that what is being criticized is neither just a song nor a concert", describing it as a matter of "cultural degeneration, moral erosion, and detachment from values being imposed on our youth, our children". The concert in Istanbul is the first of an European tour that will also go to the Netherlands (6 and 8 June), Georgia (12 June), Albania (11 July), Spain (30 July), and Portugal (7 August), after concerts in Italy were cancelled and was banned from entering the UK. He had also cancelled concerts in France, Poland, and Switzerland.The American rapper has been criticised for continuous antisemitic comments, self-declaring himself a Nazi, releasing a song titled 'Heil Hitler' and even selling swastika T-shirts. In timing with his latest album, West apologised in the Wall Street Journal, saying he had "lost touch with reality" and was suffering an episode of "psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour".Consolidated News Photos / Shutterstock.com
