Erdogan adviser condemns record Kanye West concert in Istanbul, urges ministry action
Aerial view of Ataturk Olympic Stadium during Kanye West's concert in Istanbul, Türkiye May 30, 2026. (IHA Photo)
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Chief Adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly condemned the Kanye West concert held in Istanbul last week, calling on the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to exercise greater scrutiny over events he said conflict with the nation's religious and civilizational values.Oktay Saral, a chief presidential adviser, posted his rebuke on X in the days following the May 30 performance at Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium, where the rapper drew a reported crowd of 118,000 people.The event was West's first European concert in more than a decade. West told the audience from the stage, "I just want to tell y'all, we just broke the record, 118,000, largest stadium performance of all time." Forbes noted the record is difficult to independently verify, pointing out that free solo concerts, including Lady Gaga's 2025 performance in Rio de Janeiro, have drawn far larger crowds.
Fans gather inside Ataturk Olympic Stadium ahead of Kanye West's concert in Istanbul, Türkiye, May 30, 2026. (AA Photo)
In his post, Saral wrote that the concert "cannot be accepted as an ordinary music event." He described the spectacle of tens of thousands of young people chanting West's lyric "I am a God" as "a scene that must be addressed with seriousness."He also cited the presence of Michèle Lamy, whom he described as associated with occultism and dark symbols, as evidence that the event was "not merely about music and entertainment."Lamy, a French-Algerian fashion designer married to Rick Owens, has collaborated with West on multiple occasions, including appearing at his Yeezy Season 9 runway presentation in Paris in 2022. She is known for a distinctive aesthetic incorporating ritual-adjacent imagery and unconventional materials.Saral also wrote that it was alarming that "even the conservative segment has become part of this cultural siege," and that "no one objecting to this alienation being imposed on our youth under the stage lights is grave."He called on the Culture and Tourism Ministry to be "much more careful" with events touching on the nation's spiritual and cultural sensitivities. "This nation's children must embrace their own civilizational values, not the directives of the global culture industry," he wrote.
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Concert drew international crowds as European bans mountedThe May 30 show at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium drew fans from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan and the United States. It evolved into an all-night festival featuring DJ sets, laser and light shows, and opening performances by Turkish artists including Yener Cevik, Mavi, and Sena Sener.Organizers opened stadium gates at 3 p.m. to manage the influx of concertgoers, and the M9 metro line serving the stadium saw severe overcrowding in the hours before showtime.The Istanbul date came after a series of cancellations and bans across Europe. The United Kingdom denied West entry on public interest grounds, leading to the cancellation of his Wireless Festival headline slot. Concerts in France, Poland, and Switzerland were also called off. Italian authorities banned a planned July performance following objections from Jewish communities and security concerns.West released a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year in which he attributed a period of antisemitic statements, Nazi imagery, and the release of a song titled "Heil Hitler" to what he described as a "four-month-long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour."The concert was organized jointly by ILS Vision and TemaCC, and was livestreamed on West's YouTube channel. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has not publicly responded to Saral's statement.
